Do My Calculations
by NFMaredzenian
Summary: With college life meaning the entrance to a dull world, what kept them going was the chance of meeting new and dangerous people once in a while, although danger might be nearer than they expect it is. Chap28 up, the end is two chapters away.
1. Orientation

**Do My Calculations**

I'm back from the exhaustion of exams and ready to face the grueling year of pre-university. That's right, kiddoes, college, and since I base my DMC drabbles on daily experiences, I doubt I could continue Drabble Might Count as a school-based fanfic, not to mention that none of my classmates took the same course as I did. I wish my fanfic-writing abilities hadn't faded with time. I think it'll be easier to write about college where there's no fixed 'designated' class where you have to stay with the same group of people the whole time. College makes my life flow smoothly… except for the Math subject!  
That's what contributed to the title!  
Without further ado, here's a take at writing about college life… with the Sons of Sparda. I know I don't own them, but we all know where they belong.  
I also don't know how tall they are exactly, so spare me the detail-check.

Entry One: Orientation

The twins sat in silence inside the Toyota Harrier, the elder wearing a blue collared shirt and black tights, the younger wearing a red short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. Ever since the Education Certificate examination is over with, they had hardly seen anyone except for their neighbor, and even so, she frequently kept to herself within her untidy room. No matter how much she had wanted to attend the school prom, she had been missing due to her family's trip to Perth. As a result, neither twin went either, refusing to sit around and watch as each boy in their class dance with a partner; they could not, _must not_, dance with each other.  
Confident of his results, Vergil had prepared himself for college three months before the end of the year; it was then when he browsed through the right brochures that would serve him the purpose of helping him decide where to head for after school. Dante will always let Vergil pick for him, since a twin is the best help a twin could get anywhere he goes.

It was on Orientation Day when they realize she was also taking the same course.

Dante and Vergil walked down the porch to a common area for students to gather or study before classes start. Registration to their respective programs will start at half past eight, so they decided to find a place to settle in before then.  
"Nay?" Dante asked, seeing the familiar downcast head belonging to a girl who wore an orange shirt and beige cargoes.  
Hearing that voice, she raised her bronze-spectacled eyes – her heart skipped a beat. "Dante? Vergil? What are you doing here?"  
"We're here for our orientation," Vergil responded, seeing no reason why she should ask that.  
"So are you planning to take any fancy-schmancy course while we're here?" the less mature twin asked with genuine curiosity.  
"I'm taking Monash University Foundation Year."

Dante stood stiff as a board and turned to Vergil. "We have a classmate," he announced.  
"Don't jest. Just because the three of us take the same course, it doesn't mean we'll all be in the same class," Vergil snapped.  
"You said 'jest'."

An inactive conversation followed up next with Dante doing most of the talking; Vergil and Nay had nothing to recap. Come the time the counter opens for registration, the three proceeded to line up.  
"Is this the line for MUFY?" a young man with shoulder-length black hair wearing a hat of the same color asked Dante.  
"Yep," he replied.  
Behind the hat-wearing man are four more people who joined him in the line. The tallest of them pointed out that they did not have to ask the platinum-haired teenager what the line is for.  
"Of course, Jimmy; your glasses always see the farthest," the shortest of them sarcastically remarked.

With directions provided by the registrar, the future students made their way to the north portion of the building where the elevator is. Should they wish not to waste time waiting, they could use the stairs. "Fourth floor! Imagine how high that would be!" Dante exclaimed.  
"This isn't the first time I hear you complaining about tasks you could perform so easily," his twin remarked.  
"Oh, yeah, climbing four sets of staircases with _a pair_ of ten steps is as easy as ringing a doorbell."  
"Where's Nay?"  
Vergil had posed that question on purpose to make Dante look forward and notice that the four-foot-eleven girl is close to being out of their sight.  
"You couldn't press your finger on the doorbell, could you?"  
"No, fool; I stayed back to make a mockery of you in comparison to a girl eleven inches shorter than you."

Dante is unwilling to carry on with the argument while lugging his red single-strap bag-full-of-books up two and a half more floors. He would be huffing all the way while Vergil blissfully ignores his whines.  
The Multi-Purpose Hall where the main parts of orientation will be held could as well pass off as a mosh pit if the stage at the very front is large enough for a seventeen-piece drum set. Keeping her habit started in secondary school, Nay went to take one of the front seats, since people who recently enter do not bother to walk all the way there.  
It was easier to follow the nerd since the emcee later asked them to fill up the front seats and save the space on the back for latecomers.

Their first day had been very uneventful. The fresh entrants basically learnt that their attendance can be taken on a list generated by a computer-based registration of the students, which will be done on Monday. They also learn that the local authorities ensure their safety and that the library now occupies two floors.  
Dante waved goodbye to the man in a black hat who sat at the passenger seat of his friends' red convertible. Vergil proceeded to call his father and tell him that the day's orientation is over with. Before he could access his in-palm phonebook, though, he could not help but overhear Nay's conversation with her mother:  
"I'm sorry, dear, but you know how busy I am these days."  
"This is why I wanted to learn how to drive as soon as I can. How am I supposed to get home now?"  
"I really dread this, but you're going to have to take the cab home. You did bring your allowance, didn't you?"  
"Yes, Mom."  
Mother said it all. Eva had been using the Fiat; not only did she not want the boys to have to pay for the parking at the campus everyday, but due to her conservative ways, she does not trust either of them – not even Vergil – to take their neighbor home safely if she needed transportation.  
Sparda always has free time after four in the evening, so whether or not they are in a hurry home, Papa will always be around for them.

"Don't take rides from strangers," Nay quoted her mother. "But I've known you guys in my final year of high school, and you live just next door."  
"Enough said," Vergil told her, speed-dialing his father's number.  
"I still don't understand why Mom wouldn't let us drive ourselves or Nay to college," Dante remarked after the call was made.  
"The problem is that if you drive, there's a tendency you'd crash the Punto, and if I drive, you'll distract me and make _me_ crash the Punto."  
"That doesn't explain anything to do with Nay, though." So he has decided to bring their neighbor to the main topic of their conversation.  
"I predict that if Father comes alone, she'll have to take shotgun because he won't trust either of us not to misconduct ourselves around her."  
"What…"  
"He's here – there's a new record," Vergil muttered.

Regardless of the short time-span between when the call was returned and the driver's arrival, the Harrier arrived in its regular splendor with the exact same shine it had in the morning. "Ahoy, kids!"  
A vein on Vergil's temple pulsed. "We're in college, Father," he said coldly.  
"What does it matter to me? Both of you are still my kids, and we have a younger guest with us today, so you have told me – welcome aboard, young Nay."  
The under-aged girl nodded, her silence in greeting being regular amongst people she rarely meets. Vergil made sure Dante is on the seat behind the driver's and not the passenger's.  
"Excuse me, sir – if you will be driving me home from now on, will my family or I have to pay you at all?" she queried, however.  
"Nonsense! And call me Uncle Sparda if you wish. We're neighbors, aren't we? I just hope you could stand my driving."  
"I think that's the least I can do to thank you."  
Not seeing his younger son's face right behind him, he was unaware of Dante pulling the most surprised expression of the fortnight.  
'Powers above…' Vergil thought of this absurd hospitality of his father's. 'This will carry on forever.'

* * *

I wanted to add a part where I found a City of Evil album in Papa Sparda's in-vehicle collection of CDs, but I couldn't figure out how to work it in. If being driven to and from college by the Dark Knight himself is a dream, it depends on who dreams it. Dante will be motivated to be punctual because the hour of rushing would be a total nightmare.  
I hope you enjoyed the twins' first-day view of college with the only student there that they knew the year before.  
By the way, these days my doorbell takes the part of my hand near my wrist to press, not just two of my stronger fingers. 


	2. A Lesson Learnt In Life

**Do My Calculations**

I thank Lady Tatum and Eric Draven201 for the reviews on the first chapter. I'm motivated to start off the second chapter the next day!  
I know I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong. The name of this chapter does not belong to me either, but I own that random dude spoken of below. I'm also supposed to read that third Wheel of Time book, The Dragon Reborn; not for college, but I haven't read much lately.

Entry Two: A Lesson Learnt In Life

Events had taken a turn when the neighbor's parents discovered how she got home without a hitch that Thursday. From Friday and college days onwards, she will join the twins in their journey to campus and back.  
"I had been thinking that Dante might delay us in the morning when your dad sends us, but I think of it as unusual for him to be on time."  
Vergil paused in his tracks at the common area. Dante had proceeded forward to meet the group of five friends he met yesterday. "Trust me; you don't want my father to think we're late," he said.  
"Why?"  
"Given that you travel to a certain part of this city on a strict daily basis, would you prefer to ride a normal bus or an air-bus?"  
She digested those words carefully. "You've got a point."

That day, the program organizers gave the students a more in-depth detail of their course and where they will be headed, now that the students in the hall are narrowed down to only MUFY students. To the demise of most of them, though, they are given what were scheduled to be the English and the Mathematics Placement Tests.  
"Don't worry; the tests won't be too hard. They'll be held to gauge your level of language and quantitative skills," the emcee at half past nine that morning told them.  
The thirty or so students in who hold the lowest positions in English are not permitted to take up the subject Globalization. Those who fell behind in Mathematics will be barred from taking Advanced Mathematics.  
Nobody wanted to fall behind.

Vergil pondered the prospect of taking up Globalization. The presentation given about the subject to introduce it to the students had shown that to take the subject, one must be aware of recent significant events that occur around the world. A thought-bubble appeared. He pictured himself sitting in a lavish office on the fourth-top floor of a corporate building. He has achieved financial independence, success and domination. Money matters to the world, and money is his power.  
The strength of the world is on his shoulders.  
The thought-bubble popped. The slideshow now depicts war refugees. He despised, hated,_ loathed_ the useless and the pathetic. If Globalization had to do anything with studying cultural impacts of war, the enforcement of rules and imperialism on countries that are weak and could not be changed easily, it could steal his sanity away.  
No, he can learn much about the world online – that's what Wikipedia is for.

He signed the first of three copies of a subject registration form with the following subjects on the list ticked: English, Mathematics, Accounting and Economics. Those would help him achieve his vision.  
Beside him, Dante had silently prayed that the Mathematics placement test will be easy and have no questions relating to algebra.  
Vergil snorted. His brother will always be wrong.  
Nay had picked the same subjects as well, seeing no other way for herself to migrate to Australia other than being an accountant since she had passed up the offer of becoming a doctor or an engineer two or three years ago. In any case, she had never been interested in treating the unwell or aiding in constructing cars in the first place.  
It was almost too easy to guess what subjects Dante picked.

* * *

During lunch break, sitting at the common area as they always do, the three were taken on by surprise as a tall girl rushed to their table.  
When Nay raised her head, the girl realized that Nay is not the person she was looking for, having mistaken her for a friend.  
"Why couldn't that happen to me?" Dante wondered.  
"Have you ever taken a look into a mirror?" Vergil sniped.  
"Doing so," he responded. Vergil found his brother eyeing him.  
"And?"  
"And what?"  
Vergil sighed in exasperation. "Look around. Nobody here looked like either of us. Can you find anyone whose friend looks like me?"  
Dante passed his surroundings a glance for anyone who looked like Vergil. "There!"  
But the man he pointed at had yellowier, if slightly, spiked blonde hair and his eyes are dark brown instead of the twins' blue. He was half a foot shorter than either twin and wore black-rimmed rectangular spectacles. "I hadn't even started being a fixed character yet," the confused student muttered, walking off to the north portion of the building where the coffee-stand is.  
"He doesn't look like either of us."  
"Oh, come on, Verge! Let's ask someone who knows our looks best around here. Tell him, Nay."  
"Tell him what? That we're late for the Mathematics placement test?"

Dante tossed his pencil-case into his red bag and jumped from the seat. Vergil gave her a questioning look when she remained seated where she is.  
"I wouldn't tell him that. It's not even ten minutes until the English Placement test starts, which comes before Mathematics."  
"Then why did you say that? You almost gave me a heart attack back there!"  
"I wouldn't tell_ Vergil_, but I'll tell _you_," she said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, it's about time you start being consistent with your ethics."  
"This is why we spend silences together in your vicinity," Vergil stated, picking up his backpack and ready to leave Dante. "Farewell, brother, we're heading to the Multi-Purpose Hall."  
"Is that so? Well, fine, go on. I'll do well enough on my own," he confidently told the departing two.

Looking at the absence of the man-in-the-hat known as Brian, tall Jimmy and their three other friends in the common area, he took out his iPod. He can find ways to spend free time that came with the freedom that school deprived him of. On his own.  
However, according to the current track he was listening to, he should note what a grown boy and a grown girl could do in this span of free time as well.  
"Wait for me!" A few heads turned upon seeing that he was shouting at people he could not see. He gave no care that there are four pairs of ten steps on a staircase to get past. He cared –

The twin with preference for the color of the ocean turned and used his half-second time gap to brace for the impact.

Nay hoped she did not misplace the bookmark on the third book in the Wheel of Time series for she dropped that tome of an epic tale momentarily.  
The students who were waiting for the doors of the hall to open came to see what the commotion was all about.  
There were no papers flying or falling around the two as an added effect. Dust moved instead, and Vergil wiped a handful of them off his forehead.  
"I suppose I should not demand to know if you are insane, unless it goes up to the point of danger," he stated, shoving Dante off him.  
Both brothers stood up and brushed themselves of dust in unison. A gaggle of girls who just exited the elevator to enter the corridor stopped in their tracks to see the twins roughly preening themselves. Nay did not see them, nor did they spark envious rage within her.  
The short member of the group of five boys came to investigate what happened. "I can see where this is going," he stated, going back inside.

"What happened back there?" Nay asked Dante.  
"I've decided to try and outdo Vergil's punctualness."  
"It's punctuality," Vergil corrected once inside the hall.  
"I could care less of how you became a walking dictionary," the younger twin sassed.  
"I am even less concerned as to how you started mimicking me."  
"I'm trying to piss you off here, okay?"  
"Who doesn't know?"  
"I may have contributed to the 'walking dictionary' part," Nay spoke up once they reach their seats, taking out a pocket-sized dictionary that might have fit in her jeans-pocket were it not so thick.  
The English Placement test involves writing an essay based on a chosen topic. At this point, copying is not possible, but Dante hoped to read what Vergil sees.  
Noticing this, Vergil glanced at the table beside his and saw his younger brother looking dazedly at his paper containing only a single paragraph. He chuckled inwardly.  
'Dear foolish brother, you came to college to further your studies, didn't you? Let's see how you catch up in this.'

Vergil always has a flair for writing quickly while keeping his words neat. He picked a topic, tried to relate it to a part of his life and expand the tale from there onwards. Dante could also write quickly, but not as tidily as his brother does.  
"Which question did you pick?" Nay asked him once the hour is over.  
"I picked the first: 'When you did or did not do the right thing'. The second topic was too open and ridiculous-sounding," he responded.  
"Me, too," Dante interjected, hoping that he sounded convincingly nonchalant.  
"I don't think I have to know," she remarked.  
"What about you?" Dante asked her.  
"I picked the first, like Vergil did."  
He tried not to give his exclamation a big effect. "What!?" It was not intentional, but he did scream, making others turn to look at them.

"What's up? Is someone pregnant or something?" Brian asked, approaching them; he looked pointedly at Nay as he spoke. Vergil shooed him.  
"Do you mean I could've taken it wholesale from her instead of trying to take you on?" Dante demanded.  
"I think a probable reason is that I've been writing _my_ essay from a girl's point of view," she said, shrugging.  
"You mean you really are pregnant?"

Vergil gave Dante the hardest kick on the rump on that day.

The Mathematics Placement Test was a pain in the posterior incomparable to his older twin brother's blow. Algebra did come up, but it is with Nay's help that he found the solutions.  
Sparda arrived with a surprised look on his face upon seeing the three kids being so quiet. "Why the long faces? Did somebody get pregnant or what?"

* * *

I can't recall everything that happens on my subject registration day, but here it is. I apologize for still filling chapters in place of the storyline and writing in the same style as I do my drabbles, but as of this chapter, classes haven't started yet.  
They began for me, which is why I doubt I could find instant time to begin writing up the next chapter.  
By the way, the second topic was 'Everyone looked at me…' It doesn't make much sense to me either with the ellipsis.  
The end sentence is an added effect. Don't let Brian put stuff in your head.


	3. Hmork

**Do My Calculations**

One more review so far – thanks, Silentdeath Bringer – thanks also go to any reader that can bear my idea of a fanfiction. I've been including a lot of myself in here as an original character, but _someone_ has to be able to enter the women's bathroom.  
I know I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong. I also don't own the word "Hmork" since my younger brother was the one who created it. Aes Sedai belong to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time world. I also don't own the DISC Profile System. I think Dr. William M. Marston can claim rights to it since it's printed here that he developed it.

Entry Three: Hmork (Homework)

Home is welcome after a day of humiliating self-reflection and revisiting memories that were repressed.  
"Wow! Who knew my personality type was 'I'?" Dante exclaimed in wonder as Vergil and Nay exit the Harrier at the same time as he.  
"And who knew I was an 'S'?" Nay responded with a cynical frown.  
Vergil sighed. He was a 'C'.

These are the major personality types which people can be rounded off to after they take a test created by a psychological expert or so:  
D: Dominance; prefer** being in control** and being **able to create results**. The basic intent is to overcome.  
I: Influence; tend to prefer an environment that allows **social interaction**. The drive to influence, to express and to be heard. The basic intent is to persuade.  
S: Steadiness; prefer **stability, consistency** and **security**. The basic intent is to support.  
C: Compliance; tend to prefer an environment that places high value on being **right** and **safe**. The basic intent is to avoid trouble.

"I didn't know what 'accommodating' in terms of personality means before I refer to the dictionary," she complained.  
"If I were to suddenly become an optimistic force here, I would tell you to look forward to the weekends," Vergil told her.

On the next Friday…

Mathematics is over. Without English on that day, they have three hours and forty-five minutes until they have to go for Accounting class.  
Dante waved them goodbye. In his mind, he knew they would agree to behave, even if Nay had decided to stay out of the library. "The books have eyes; I swear."  
They would damn well behave anyway.  
Ever since he discovered the Students' Center, Dante would always visit the place of various functions. Dancers would practice or rehearse in the dance-room, rockers would make sure they are good enough for the next gig, and the sports-oriented could play table-tennis or foosball in the air-conditioned environment. He could not help but grin at tall Jimmy's determination to defeat Matt and short John without Brian's help.

"Hold; Dante's here," Jimmy announced, looking up.  
"You're on the verge of losing," Brian pointed out.  
"How's everything?" Dante counted heads. "And where's Zack?"  
"With his 'tar, as usual," John replied, giving Matt the chance to rotate a rod and kick the miniature football into the goalpost on Jimmy's side. "Hey!" the taller student exclaimed.  
Dante laughed. "How long have you guys got until your next lesson?"  
"Two and a third hours; we all don't have English today, but there's still Global," Brian responded. "By the way, that chick you and your bro hang out with; is she still…" He made a discreet motion.  
"Get off that, will you?" Dante told him, taking charge of two rods on Jimmy's side.  
With the half-demon by his side, his side easily overwhelms the two opponents.

In the meantime...

Nay took her earphones off. "Vergil, are you doing double homework?" she asked in disbelief.  
"I had to. My brother may be leftover deadweight, but his true, inner golden glow is shown the moment humiliation hits him in the face," Vergil answered.  
"You dudes have the same looks," she tried to say it from a logical point of view.  
Vergil suddenly turned his head in her direction with an eyebrow raised, a strand of hair unsupported by gel swaying in the artificial wind.  
"Let's hope humiliation doesn't hit _you_ in the face," Nay remarked.

Vergil blinked upon seeing the large scrawls on a piece of scrap paper. "Boredom seems to have found you at last."  
"Huh?" She appears to be writing with her _left_ hand instead of with her _right_. "I didn't expect Economics to be so dry. No wonder the Accounting teacher yesterday said economists never seem to get to the point; I can write as I understand, but the meaning must not change. It's like learning marketing from Aes Sedai."  
"That's not my point, though; did you really think you could achieve something by attempting to be ambidextrous?"  
"I can write twice as much as I do now."  
Looking at the crammed, microscopic handwriting on filed foolscap A4 papers in a blue folder of hers, he doubted she needed the additional advantage.  
"Take care of my items for a while; I'm going to the bathroom," Nay told him, "but don't read what I wrote. The font may scar you for life."

Ever the skeptic and knowledge-thirsty, he opened her blue organizer once she is out of sight. When students register at the college and pay the deposit fees, they will each receive a student kit, and every kit item is identical – the cloth folder, the organizer, the highlighter and such – unless the owner has personalized any of them over the three weeks. Dante's would have a red-colored cover instead of blue, but that is his story; fortunately for Vergil, neither he nor the aspiring writer had decorated their covers yet.  
He placed his organizer where hers had been before she left and started reading the parts in which the fickle-minded girl had written down her confessions.

_College is like school, albeit somewhat cooler. Freedom is thrown in my face, and I can plan my studies the way I want them._  
She rambles a lot when it comes to her strategies of planning nothing. Vergil scanned the page for more recent writings regarding her reaction towards different people.  
_If I don't see it, I won't believe it; he__ is in the same English class as we are! Now there's more to language than study skills!_  
Vergil wondered who _he_ is. Last year this five-foot-tall neighbor of his had been eyeing Ethan, but now that they have gone their separate ways, her spectacled eyes have found a different magnet. In any case, though, the class monitor from the previous year never acknowledged her hints of affection towards the end of the examinations.  
_Formidable as he may appear at first sight, Don is a nice guy, and being the gentleman he is, he's a hit with the ladies. I could only wonder if Dante has the class to compete with him._  
Whoever had been the first-mentioned _'he',_ Vergil was sure it was not Don, lest the anonymity would not be used in the first place.

He had an idea. He took out the mechanical pencil the owner of the book had recommended him to buy and started writing at the bottom of the paragraph. Once he was done with that single sentence, he withdrew, cracking his knuckles; imitating a very small font of handwriting is challenging.

At the sight of Nay's return, he quickly switched the books back. He did not want her to read about his late-night thoughts.

"So much for being a C-person; do you understand nothing if I didn't say it twice?" she demanded.  
"I took care of your items, but you forgot to indicate exactly _which_ parts you didn't want me to read," Vergil responded coolly.  
"I hope you've found out nothing interesting in the parts you've read."  
"What purpose would reading be, were it not for the juicy parts?"  
Nay looked at him as if the gel supporting his hair is melting. She did not sit down; she opened her organizer to see if anything had been done to her messed documentation of her days.  
_Brian and the other boys who are Dante's friends seem suspicious. I'm just relieved that Vergil isn't as troublesome._  
She stared at the supposedly more serious of the half-demon twins. The ghost of a smile lingered on his face of bred finery.  
"Whatever you say; speaking of which, I wonder how Dante's doing without us."

Back at the Students' Center, the more sociable of Sparda's sons thanked Brian for reminding him that Freshie Night is two Thursdays away.

On the next Tuesday…

Nay has finished explaining to the last of the teachers regarding her will-be week-long absence after the Chinese New Year holidays. When she found out there is an online learning system on which she could check for assignments, Nay asked for the address, and newfound friends Sarah, Shaheera and Joey stayed to aid her search for information.  
"Are you local?" the English teacher later asked her. "Yes, and I get that a lot," Nay responded with supporting words from the girls that sat in her row.  
"Are you a girl?" Joey then asked.  
Both twins turned at the sound of that question, wondering if either or both of them are to blame for the girl with a tattoo on her right upper back to think so.

* * *

My chapters seem to be boring you for now, as far as I observe, but I need a little base into college life before the plot starts – in the next chapter!  
Who shall be elected the King and Queen of 2008's Freshie Night? What story will unfold that will capture unneeded attention?  
I'll only write for people to read anyway, so I'd better start looking for spare time. 


	4. Freshie Night I

**Do My Calculations**

Finally, Chapter Four is here! And I apologize for the ridiculously long delay. It's test season now.  
With thanks directed to Silentdeath Bringer and Eric Draven201, I now welcome ye all to the chapter where the plot kicks in.  
I know I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong. The original characters of real people in here belong to themselves. The Flanders family belongs to Matt Groening.

Entry Four: Freshie Night (Part One)

On the Tuesday after the last chapter's…

Dante caught up with the two more studious ones after the last class of the day ends. "Have you bought your tickets yet?"  
"For what?" they both asked in unison, then gave each other an awkward but very brief glance.  
"Freshie Night, of course. Don't you know that pre-U students will have that on this Thursday?"  
"I know that; I just don't know where to buy the tickets," Nay explained. Vergil said nothing; whether or not he wants to go, Dante will pull him along.  
"The guys told me that they bought the tickets from the Student Center offices. I didn't get any yet 'cause I have to know if you two are coming," the younger twin explained. He has to know because he did not want to pay 10 dollars per ticket for two people if they did not want to accompany him to the function.  
"I'm going. They say it's the best night for freshies to get to know each other," Nay stated.  
Dante turned to his brother, who still said nothing but frowned in the way he asks 'What do you think?'  
"Let's go get our tickets," he said ceremoniously.

They were fortunate on that day since it is the deadline for ticket-purchasing – Wednesday is a public holiday, and Sparda would rather take his boys somewhere more exciting than the college they currently study in. The orange, rectangular tickets have stamps and numbers on them; there obviously will be a lucky draw.

At home after Sparda sent them back on Thursday…

The three of them have an hour and a half's time to spend to get ready. It should be sufficient for an average girl who would not put on make-up, but for not-so-average twins who agree that appearance is their utmost importance at a party, an argument may ensue.  
"No, you are _not_ using my hair gel!"  
"Oh, come on, Verge, I have to look my best for this! The ladies will check me out!"  
"The 'ladies' aren't interested in you, so take your accursed hands off!"  
"They aren't interested in you either!"  
"At least Nay is."  
"What?"

Hearing the commotion, Eva rushed upstairs. "Boys, what is it about this time? I thought you two are preparing to go for that dance Dante has been ranting about."  
"Mom, this isn't a really good time," Dante began, but the human parent cut off the rest of what he has to say.  
"Of course it is a good time. There are no friends here that I can embarrass you two in front of," she said vehemently.  
"Mother, this is a trivial discussion that does not require the supervision or attention of a parent," Vergil responded, coldly as usual.  
"Verge won't let me use his hair gel," the younger twin said straightaway.

As the elder brother turns to glare at subzero temperature at his idiot of a younger brother, Eva tried to point out the predicament.  
"There's no harm in letting Dante use the hair gel, but then again, the more it's used, the more we'll spend… It just comes back to money… How much are you going to use?" Eva asked Dante.  
"Just a coin-sized squirt. I only need to keep my hair in place." Out of their mother's earshot he could still hear Vergil muttering: 'As if your brain can be kept in its place.'  
"Well, there you have it, as long as it's _only a squirt_," Eva reminded.

But what she does not know will not hurt her.

Outside their houses…

Having been informed that the dress code for the function is smart-casual, Nay wore a short-sleeved collared shirt and a pair of leggings for the occasion. In her Harrods handbag she had brought along her daily organizer to record the night and stationeries besides the lip balm she would never use.  
Dante blinked openly at the sight of her.  
"They _said_ smart-casual," she said defensively, knowing from her early days of attending semi-formal functions what she can wear or cannot wear within the dress code.  
Vergil had worn a blue cotton shirt and a black leather vest along with dark jeans and workplace shoes borrowed from his father. How they could fit his feet, a pure human could only wonder.  
Dante, on the other hand, wore a red cotton shirt and a knitted vest, matched by another pair of dark jeans he 'borrowed' from Vergil.  
Looking at this match of clothing, Nay shivered inside.

A loud, booming and cheerful voice saved them from prolonged awkward moments.  
"Are you kids set yet?"  
"We'll move," Vergil answered his father, taking the authoritive stand among the three.  
Sparda kept all thoughts of _the future_ out of his head as he silently turns the key in its place next to the steering wheel.

Boys, mostly, had given her discomfited looks; she had come in non-feminine clothing and sneakers. She glanced regretfully at the taller young women who wore evening dresses because they are blessed with the right figure to wear them.  
Vergil pretended not to notice.  
Even if Freshie Night was supposed to begin at 6.30pm, the students are to line up and wait some time longer until they can get their tickets marked and enter the Multi-Purpose Hall.

From the look of its beginning, Vergil knew Freshie Night will be another boring, uninteresting event where students end up dancing into the night and he would sit and watch it all unfold. The counselors who informed students attending this function said there will be some forms of 'fun' activities, hence the understood or misunderstood dress code.  
"They're treating us like kids," Dante dryly remarked when a counselor announces for the students to fill up the front seats – again, for the latecomers to fill the back.

Vergil did not feel like joining others in enjoying the refreshments catered for attendants at the very end of the hall opposite the stage where no plastic chairs occupy the floor. The 'refreshments' are cheaply prepared syrup or orange cordial dispensed from large containers into – environmentalists shiver – Styrofoam cups. Local cakes and light finger food are there as well, but he was not hungry.

True to what Nay had written down, Don _is_ a gentleman. Despite not being in formal wear – more of a traditional garb he wore – the mentioned person had come to the lonely nerd and asked if she wanted a drink. Yet even if she did not, he brought one anyway.  
She did not want to be rude by refusing.

"Are you Vergil? Dante's twin?" Don asked the twin in the leather vest.  
"That's how others know me."  
"He looks more like you tonight."  
Vergil blinked, but did not look at the international student. 'It must be the hair gel,' he thought, dismissing darker possibilities.

"We _really_ should've been allowed to perform tonight," Zack exclaimed longingly.  
"If one of us had been nominated a candidate for Freshie King we could have," Brian pointed out.  
"Why couldn't Matt be a candidate?" Jimmy asked aloud.  
"I think it's the tattoos we have. Like Dante said, we're being treated like kids," Matt stated.

After the students had their refreshments, the concert would finally begin.  
Nay made her way from the middle of the hall forward; some friends she knew in English class and during Orientation days are over there.

Vergil followed suit, having less of a choice of where to go because she is the second-closest person he can approach for anything. Or almost anything. However, as Dante opens up to the large circle of people who all seem to know each other, they would grow distant, no matter how much the little twin needs his big brother's help.  
"Are you enjoying the Freshie Night so far?" a friend had asked Nay.  
"Oh, I'm not here for the Night. I'm just an alien sent to Earth to conduct researches on human behavior," she joked.  
But he is not the only one suffering exclusion from peers. He is not the only one who would listen as others talk. He had a neighbor, or more than just one.  
'For now, she's still just another Flanders…' he mused.

So he thought until her eyes are trained on a young man with tied shoulder-length hair who is as tall as the twins and had a unique way of shaving his beard. His bright eyes, straight nose and high cheekbones must have attracted other shy eyes that could tell this person is different, somehow. He is an international student – where he is from, Vergil could wonder – and he was supposed to be in English class today and was absent, but here he is now.  
His neighbor is contented, but he is not.

* * *

The plot has begun to unfold. Paths had been set for those who walk them. Dante's going to have fun that night, or so he thinks.  
The rest of the night will be concluded in the next chapter, Freshie Night Two.


	5. Freshie Night II

**Do My Calculations**

I thank my reviewers, as usual. And one of my ways of doing so is to grant them with a new chapter!  
I know I don't own the Sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong. DMC creatures also belong to Capcom, the company that made the game. You all would also know to whom the annoying song sang by the first female performer belonged to.  
And I got the name-phrase 'demon lord' from Ace Combat Zero where I heard it upon my little-bro's playing.  
Robert Jordan _owns_ Aes Sedai speech.

Entry Five: Freshie Night (Part Two)

The night's entertainment opened up with a group of dancers promoting the Revolution Performing Arts Club. A supposedly senior member of the club had also offered to give the audience a lesson on interpretive dancing, but not many students are willing to stand up and participate.

The first male performer is a local student who plays the classical guitar alongside a friend who aids in electric solos.  
'_I_ wanted to play the 'tar.' This thought did not rise from only one mind.  
The first female performer is a dancer in a modest but vibrant costume, presenting a form of Latin dance. A student Nay knew through Orientation Day, Nafla, side-handedly mentioned that the dance is hardly entertaining and it was cheesy.  
The second male talent performer shows his supposed ability to read minds. In the wasted ten to twenty minutes, nothing seems to have happened except the stirring of the crowd into confusion. The second female was worse; she sang 'Umbrella', and horribly at that. It was a wonder as to why a lot of other students cheered on, singing with her.

Freshie King and Queen nominees alternately perform, four candidates for each, totaling up to eight performances. After the first two sets of people are over with, the Freshie Night's emcees Terrence and Jeremy requested volunteers for _pole-dancing_. Two male dancers would surround the male pole, and so goes for the females. A talent judge and a female counselor had to stand on the stage where the audience could see them.  
The prize is a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

For some reason, Don had been volunteered by his Orientation friends and classmates to get up there and compete for the candy. Another male contestant is needed, and doubtless Dante had a plan in mind.  
"Get out there, Vergil!" he cried.  
"You are _not_ making me pole-dance!" Vergil did not know how to, obviously.  
"_You_ do it, Dante," Nay encouraged instead, but the twin in red paid her no heed.  
Eventually, the force of two people against one had overwhelmed the twin in blue, slamming his back on the front of the four-foot-high stage.  
"Whoa! No rough-housing – but we have another contestant!" The perpetrator had escaped before he was seen.

'I'll get back at you one day, Dante,' Vergil thought as he watched his mirror's face with utter contempt. He stepped onto the stage next to Don and the male 'pole' to show that he is no coward.

In this competition, the male contestants – gentlemen, as Jeremy vehemently put it – will be judged first individually.  
For a modest-looking foreign student, Don had put up a good show, but if a normal local student had been volunteered by his friends instead, he would have stood a chance.  
Even the female pole stared agape at the moves pulled off by the platinum-haired teenager. It was awkward for him when the first beats reach his ears, but once he got used to the rhythm, he moved like liquid. The smooth flow of his joints makes his firm structure look malleable.

Indeed, Dante is made to regret his foolish decision.

Vergil returned to the audience with the box of sixteen Ferrero Rocher chocolates, handing some to Don and his friends even if the international student had lost. Vergil had no use for aphrodisiacs anyway, at least for the night.  
He gave absolutely none to Dante.  
"Can I at least have a bite?" He did the puppy-eyes and _the pout_. Vergil had given _her_ one of the chocolates while he – and Dante – got none.  
"And taste your residue saliva? I don't think so," Nay retorted.  
But the countenance confronting her now just looked so pitiful that she decided to give the round ball of biscuit, nuts and chocolate wrapped in foil coating to him anyway.

Nay was glad she did not step out. She did not know how to pole-dance either, even if she had to imitate those movements like Vergil did, on which memory she blushed.

Psychic to a certain extent, Vergil turned to her in a manner that would ask 'How do you like me now?'  
"You guys get things your way no matter what," she commented when the din of applause for the two remaining girls and a human pole on stage ended.

Dante took over the task of recording how the night progressed for the three of them; the two were not interested in the third King candidate's modern dance and the solo acting as carried out by the third potential Queen. Vergil insisted on accompanying Nay to the bathroom.  
"It's ten minutes to ten," she said.  
"It may not be your curfew yet, but a woman out alone at night could face countless possible dangers," he pointed out.  
"But I look like a boy." The length of hair on the back of her head covered only an inch or barely a half on the shirt collar.

Confused, she allowed him anyway, since he was so persistent. In the bathroom, she gave herself all the time she wanted to spend, away from the din of unentertaining concerts.

Outside the ladies' bathroom, Vergil tapped his feet incessantly on the floor, impatient with the ways of women when it comes to bathroom matters. It was no wonder the bathroom itself is cramped before the start of Freshie Night. It is empty except for her now, and she would not have to worry about being vain in front of others, as there is nobody to disturb her now.  
Except for the repetitive and constant rhythm of the drops of water leaking out of a faulty tap. Part of her was paranoid that it meant a horror movie segment is going to occur, but she rationally assured herself it was nothing.

The good it did is for Vergil; he did not have to wait much longer than needed. He did not say a word as they return to the hall.

The solo drama had just ended. The last performing man sang – as a norm with raw talent, it is not critically acclaimed.  
A dancer named Kiera had two parts to her performance; one as a traditional dancer, the second as a modern one. After the change of costumes, Dante's jaw dropped at the enticing ways of her movement, not to mention her choice of clothing.  
This slender short girl wore a T-shirt for her size enough to reveal her body shape and a pair of shorts to show off her sculpted legs.  
Unlike his twin, Vergil was not captivated by the supposedly-attractive girl on stage. So far, none of the Freshie King and Queen nominees had put up a show that looked dangerous or possibly dubbed 'negative'. The positive influence here is too large.

Shortly afterwards, the organizers commence the lucky draw. Nay fervently hoped her number would turn up, but it just never seems to. Nobody among the seats surrounding her had their number pulled out from the bowl of randomness either.  
"Can I trade this prize for a date with Kiera?" Jimmy asked upon leaving the stage with his gift-bag which is sponsored by a phone company.  
There was a brief uproar of laughter from the crowd. The tall student walked back to his friends without missing a beat.

Luck was with Dante tonight. He had won himself a webcam.  
"With this I can record all our adventures!" he exclaimed, wrapping an arm around his friends' necks. It was ridiculous.  
"What adventures? Nothing ever happens in this country," Vergil spoke in reply.

How wrong he had guessed.

The dance floor is later set up after all the lucky draw prizes were won and the emcees Terrence and Jeremy threw out more Snickers and Mars Bars.  
Clad in the epitome of fame, Dante swaggered to the middle of the Multi-Purpose Hall floor where all the chairs had been cleared.  
Nay's current eye-magnet and others who seem to know everyone else are out on the floor, at times going on the stage to step on its wooden floor, which would not be as hard and slippery as the hall's original stone. She wondered where the guitars played early during the night had gone, and if the DJ would start playing some forsaken rock songs already. Dance songs buzz irritably in her ears.  
"Let me guess; you could play the guitar and could not dance, and he could not play the guitar, yet he dances."  
She looked up at the cool, intimidating visage that belonged to the firstborn son of Sparda. "How did you know?"  
He unintentionally flourished his hand in a dismissive manner. "Let's say I've seen more things than I should have when I rummage in minds as part of my work on world domination."

She looked down. Somewhere on the stage, Dante would be leading a line of people. It may have been practiced in clubs, but neither she nor Vergil had the taste for human-cramping.  
Daring himself, Vergil held out a gloved hand. "Wait for a slow song. When they decide to play one for couples, we'll dance."  
"What? But I don't know how to dance! And – couple?"  
"You should really start thinking yourself more of a girl than a boy next time." He gestured for her to reach out to him.

Darkness enveloped the entire hall. "My prize!" a shout came from somewhere, but it did not persist. Apparently the person had found what he was looking for.  
Without their microphones, what with the power having been cut off, the emcees tried to make themselves heard.  
"Alright, students, this is not the time to panic. Keep quiet and walk out in a line or two, and don't push." It sounded like Terrence.

However, when the attendants of the failing function first step into the moonlight, blood-red glows emerge in darkness around them. White things fly above the campus roof. Webs occupied the empty space between one corridor and the other. Blades glint, reflecting moonlight, and on this night, lives are about to end.

The students who got out rushed back into the hall, scattered out on the floor where chairs have all been pushed back. It was then that Nay realized somebody is clutching at her shoulders.  
"Whoever's holding me right now," she said in a controlled volume so as not to confuse the crowd, "let go."  
The grip disappeared. Not long after that, warmth started creeping up her _posterior_.  
"Dante…"  
"What? I'm holding my hands up!" the named twin defensively exclaimed.  
"… Then… Vergil?"  
"My hands are ironed and folded neatly. You need not worry about it," he stated in a voice barely heard more than a breath.

In the darkness, nobody could even see the tip of their own nose, but soon two bright blue orbs rose from the floor. Moaning noises come from the back end of the hall, where balls of fire or something else that seemed to float in mid-air give light which some knew will result in an explosion. "Someone pass me a goddamn BB gun!" It was evidently a male voice, though not Dante's.

With a final roar that was cut short by the emitter's death, somebody managed to get the power-source back in its flow.  
Nearly all the chairs in the hall had been overturned at the confusion and commotion. Only the stacked chairs still stood, and there were gashes in few of them.  
"We do regret the inconvenience we've caused. We did intend Freshie Night to end at eleven, but at this time – see you tomorrow morning."

It was only then that some of the less-frightened students remembered that the next day is Friday. "And I thought I could finally do something tonight," Dante complained.  
"You mean your homework?" Vergil shot tactically.  
"Were those things just my uncontrolled imagination or did you guys see them?" Nay asked.  
"Well, there was a lot of noise, more darkness and even more people. It shouldn't be more different than a regular nightclub," he reasoned it out.  
"Verge, couldn't you tell when someone's being serious? I saw those reapers and the zombie slaves, too," Dante told his neighbor-friend.  
"I attended Freshie Night, yet I did not know any student more than I already had. The counselors had lied when they say this is the best night to get to know each other."  
"Well, you could've known more people if you opened up and talked to them!"  
"Dante, _you_ are not the rational one here!"

They realized Nay had come out of their sight. She is nowhere to be seen, at least in the hall. 'And neither is that eye-magnet…' Vergil noted.  
'What eye-magnet? I'm still here?' Dante answered, looking disdainfully in his brother's eyes.  
'You weren't the one who reads her daily diary, now move!'

The twins found her waiting for the Harrier to make its trip home with them for the night. Sparda pulled over at the middle stop. "How was it?" The demon lord is as cheerful as ever.  
"A night unlike any other before," Nay responded. He chuckled.  
"I see you still have your book out. Have you made a good report of the night?"  
"I've yet to finish it."

Vergil is speechless at this cover for truth. She was not lying, but what she said is not exactly as it means anyway.

"So what about you boys?"  
"I hate Fridays," Dante replied.  
Sparda frowned as the car is driven out of the compound and across a junction. "I thought you liked Fridays."  
"Not if I had to go to class right after a tiring night like this."  
The demon lord supposed that his sons had had the night of their college life. However, he did not think everything went in the right direction when he saw robed things jumping from lamp-post to telephone pole.

* * *

So the night ends. I'm not keen on making Freshie Night Part 3, so bear with this slightly-longer chapter. If I made any mistake of details in here, I have my poor memory to blame.  
You know, this may be unneeded information, but one of my classmates in my Economics class really resembled Dante if he had white hair and blue eyes. He wears loose camouflage pants, sneakers, a T-shirt and probably an amulet under that, but it's his hairstyle that really reminded me of Dante.  
Weird. 


	6. Tests Or Diversions

**Do My Calculations**

Insert words of gratitude here.  
I know I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong. If any of these people resemble who they would be in real life, they own themselves.  
But I own Kester. I think he first appeared in Entry Three where he said something about not being a fixed character yet.

Entry Six: Tests or Diversions

Mathematics class the next morning…

"Chester…"  
"Here."  
"Michael…"  
"Present."  
"David…"  
"Yeah."  
"Bradford…"  
The student raised his hand.

The calling of names kept resuming until everyone's attendance is checked. Some students would come in late, but their names would still be recorded afterwards.  
Dante noticed how gloomy the girl next door looked today. Seeing Vergil not even trying to comfort her, the younger asked: "What's wrong, Nay?"  
"If you knew, you'd probably have a heart attack," she replied.  
"It couldn't be that bad," Vergil said in the voice imitation of his brother.  
Dante in turn stared at him, appalled.

Shrugging groggily, Nay submitted. "Last night I had a dream…"  
The younger twin's attention returned to her. He motioned for her to resume.  
"… that two people are making love."  
"See? They're normal dreams," the blue-wearing twin told her.  
Nay frowned, then told them the entirety of it in a very, _very_ low whisper. "Did I mention that they were _two men_ making love to _each other_?"

To Brian, Matt and Jimmy at least, sitting on the row behind theirs, the reaction had been priceless; Dante fell off his chair to the scant floor-space between the left-wall and the right-wall tables; Vergil's shoulders could be seen quivering.  
"'Scuse me," Dante muttered, getting back into the old plastic-and-metal chair. It was already uncomfortable, having to sit on the low, flat surface for an hour and about ten minutes.  
Vergil regained his composure after clearing his throat. "Are you sure _that_ is what you saw? I mean, what did you see, really?"  
"Well, the background is darkness, and there were flashes of arms. _Man_-arms!"  
"How can you be sure they're man-arms?"  
"Don't you think I've seen men often enough to figure that out?"  
He narrowed his eyes in puzzlement. "You're probably right," he emphasized the middle word.

"Still," Dante sighed, chin propped in his palm as he tries to understand graphs of functions, "what really happened last night?" The memory of the reapers still took a toll on his nerves, yet part of him wanted blood to burn, wanted to reach for a weapon and take those things out.  
"Did I not make myself clear?" Vergil demanded. "Nothing happened!"  
"Were you so adamant about this because you were in some way involved last night and didn't want to be caught guilty?"  
How his eyes burn with infinite frost. "If I had anything to do with it, you would've played a role as well, wouldn't you?"

Nay tried not to let her sigh be heard. It was as if the two were back in a place of memory somehow, one or the other being at fault ten years ago.  
Dante started redirecting the topic to that of dreams. "My dream is that the three of us, Brian's group and a few other people are playing Truth or Dare in the middle of a meadow as kids."  
"Kids? Get me to start imagining you as kids and I'll try drawing a picture of that," Zack said; he was seated at the right-wall table opposite of Dante.  
Ignoring Zack, he asked: "What did _you_ dream last night, Verge?"  
He decided to take precautions if his brother reaches into his mind and sees the picture that he knew would reveal his subconscious.  
"I dreamed that I was standing in a place of pitch-black background saying something witty to a camera," he lied.

Nay had been missing throughout the week after the Chinese New Year holidays. Boredom passes as boredom does.

On Wednesday after the regular college hours, the first Mathematics test commences. He will ace this, as usual, while Dante struggles to keep up with his marks. If Nay kept at her current pace of work without improvement, she might not achieve much. 'Stop thinking about her.'  
'Verge, what's the answer to Question 2 sub-one?'  
'I don't have time for this, Dante.'  
'Oh, come on! You finished three quarters of your paper in half an hour! Can you help at least one person out here?'  
'Well, you're the only one.'  
'_Not necessarily.'_ A new voice had entered the mental conversation. In dread did Vergil recognize John's voice.

'What are _you_ doing in here?'  
'I decided to let some friends in our little mind-haven,' Dante explained, keeping the corners of his mouth flat and down.  
Vergil paused his drawing of the reflection of a graph. The plural use of words would mean this secret ability of theirs will be allowed to spread by the social one.  
'It echoes in here,' Matt remarked.  
'Echo, my name is Jimmy!'  
'Okay, Dante, in that question of yours, the sketching of the graph is supposed to be reflected in the _x_-axis and then moved up by three points.'  
'Thanks, Kester.'

That was the person whom Dante proclaimed that looked most like him and Vergil in the college campus.

'Alright, all of you,_out of here_!'  
'Fine, bro, you're so touchy.'  
'Dante, shut it._Now_.'

Out of the examination hall, he took notice of a shrouded figure that at first looked like it was gnawing the top of the corridor railing of the North Building, but it shot away as soon as Vergil saw it.  
'This is _not_ another school of sorcery. I don't even live in a dorm here,' he thought, frowning.  
In the absence of a valuable companion, he realized how vulnerable he would be alone, and not in the sense that those reaper shrouds would wait for the right moment to strike him down.  
There are women present, and Dante is nowhere to be seen. He could hear a feminine voice calling out for someone, but no name was mentioned.  
It was then when he realized Kester's importance in Dante's circle. Every group of delinquents would require at least one studious nerd.

His steps lengthened to match the shorter man's long strides. "Hello, Vergil," he greeted. "We've met under unfavorable conditions, and this is one of them, but we can put introductions off, can't we?"  
'Just shut up and confuse the girls already; Dante said you looked like us,' the half-demon thought, oblivious to the likelihood that Kester could hear it.

Diversions

"Welcome back, Nay," Dante greeted.  
"I would've been back yesterday, but the plane ride was delayed by twenty-four hours," she replied. The morning was warm to her since she had just returned from a colder, drier country. She reached into her backpack for a plastic bag of gifts.  
"Oh, you don't really have to," the younger twin told her.  
"Of course I do. My parents have souvenirs for your parents as well – genuine Australian chocolate – so you'd better take your own portion."

Even though she should have been the one tired out of travel, it was Vergil whose head required support for the day. His eyes were dark around the corners and they looked as if they did not receive the rest they deserved lately. "What's up with you?"  
He set his forearm down and groaned as Dante posed him the question. The word 'library' was caught by visual interpretation.  
"You've been in the college library until morning?"  
"Our father's library, fool," he corrected. "I had to know more about what disrupted Freshie Night since more of them started 'visiting' me more often."  
"Those odd-eyed things had been visiting you? No wonder you didn't get enough rest," Nay remarked.

The women kept their distance. It was good having her back by his side.

Vergil yawned widely and stretched his shoulders and back. He heard a light crack of bone somewhere.  
"Do you – um… need a back massage?" Both she and Dante were oblivious that neither of them knew how to massage other people's backs.  
"I'm fine. Leave me," he simply said.  
"Oh, come on," Dante exclaimed, slapping the area of discomfort on his big brother's back that would make it ache more.

A little while later Brian, Jimmy and John sneaked up behind them to make obvious remarks in succession of each other.  
"For a he and a she who hang out so often with each other, the only things left for you to complete are each other's sentences."  
"Would you _please_ stop hiding it?"  
"I see many others that were twitter-painted, but you are what the other chose."

Irritated, Vergil stood from the chair to face them and say something venomous, but when he raised his hand to point at them, ice-blue crystals shot past his shoulders. One of the sharp crystals took Brian's hat by the middle and pinned it to the wall; the other swished right above Johnny's short frame.  
"So much for an advice session, guys," Jimmy told the two as he and John wait for Brian to take his ruined hat; he was undeniably upset at that.

The two people he almost trusted most in the world blinked when he turned to face them, sitting back down.  
"Verge," Dante began, an excited grin forming on his lips, "what was that?"  
"I bet five bucks that it had something to do with the reapers on Freshie Night," he said to add challenge to his tone.  
"I thought you firmly insisted that nothing happened," Nay remarked.  
"That is until I know I must be involved. Maybe our blood is involved," he mentioned to Dante.

Those who need to be diverted of direction…

"She's back."  
"Does she have absolutely nobody else to hang out with?"  
"She's their neighbor. Get over it."

"You're right; but I'm keeping an eye on the spiky-haired one."  
"Speak for yourself. The hotter guy's mine."  
"He is _so not_ hotter!"  
"I'll leave it to you to work it out. I'm going to the library."

* * *

For those who don't know, twitter-painted means love-struck.  
Yes, this is pretty much a filler chapter, as the next few would. I could only hope I'm able to insert story-parts in fillers…  
By the way, if you need some pointers at the end of this chapter, those girls aren't my friends and don't exist in reality. 


	7. Oral Presentation

**Do My Calculations**

It's been test season lately and I'm amazed I'd find time to write, but here I am. This chapter's originally supposed to be A Memorable Lunch, but I find that there's not enough material.  
I know I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong. If any of these people resemble who they would be in real life, they own themselves.

Entry Seven: Oral Presentation

On their way back from the Student Center where Dante continuously defeated Vergil in about every game of foosball, the twins found Nay working on something alone on her almost pristine white laptop.  
"What the heck is that?" Dante asked, squinting at the BMP file being edited on the screen.  
"Stick figures…" Vergil muttered, half-heartedly answering his twin's question.  
Nay resisted pounding the table, but still turned to look at them to answer: "These stick figures are visualizations for the oral presentation topic I'm working on."

"Oh, right."  
Dante wondered how he could have forgotten the project every student in English class had been working on.

Being the work-serious or as his brother says nerdy person he is, Vergil felt prompted to ask her: "What's your presentation topic?"  
"DVD piracy," she answered. It was a stupid topic, but it seemed the issue that revolves most around her at the moment.  
"You don't have to worry. I heard the teacher say you had all the necessary points for the presentation," the younger twin assured her.

"What's yours?" she raised the question by impulse.  
"What?"  
"Presentation topic."  
Vergil was glad someone else is there to question the idiot for him.  
"Uh… I'm going to make an informative speech on extreme sports," Dante said, looking odd when he is void of facial expressions. It was an awkward sight. "Vergil will present something about taking over the world."

The unnecessary disclosure of information took him by surprise.  
"It's an informative speech about globalization and the reasons people are still resisting it," he corrected the less-scholarly young man.  
She realized something. "But you're not taking Globalization," Nay pointed out.  
"The Internet is a form of social globalization," he countered.  
To argue further with him is fruitless.

One week before the presentation…

Dante fell to his knees, his hands each clamping the other fist. "Please!"  
The show is not enjoyable enough for the crowd to watch, so the other twin judged. His annoying brother would have to do something more drastic.

When they drew out their sequence numbers and days for them to do their presentation – Monday to Thursday since there is no English on Friday – Dante will be the fourth to present on the first day, which is Monday. Vergil would be the second to present on Thursday while Nay is the third. Their teacher told them that they can swap their turns, but the trade has to be mutually agreed with.  
Meanwhile, one particular man of an extent of luck is being hard to persuade.

"Does it matter to you so much to not present your preposterous slideshow on the first day of the week?" Vergil demanded, not looking up from his Economics textbook.  
"Monday is not my lucky day!"  
"And why should I make a luck-transfer to you?"  
"I thought Monday was _your_ lucky day," Dante muttered, earning a glare that silenced him, told him that he is lowering his own chances of trading places.

He turned to another person that might save him from his predicament. "Nay?"  
"I've helped you out several times in the Accounting test. You're the one who needs to repay favors. If you really need my hand in this, the favor meter tops up, so you have to…" The boyish girl hummed, thinking of ways to use Dante that could scar him for life and teach him that accounting does not apply only to written work.

"Vergil…" He returned to begging on his knees. "Brethren – have a heart and hand in this. You are my only hope."  
The mechanical pencil dropped out of his gloved hand. He tried so hard not to laugh at this. 'He said _brethren_!'  
"Did you even know the proper application of that word?" Vergil managed to say without rendering his voice shaky from laughter control.

"Alright, brother, you have entertained me enough. We shall discuss another time," the twin in blue remarked with a smile to comfort his blood and flesh. "Now you go play with those boyfriends of yours or something, seeing as you hang out with them so often –"  
"Hey!"

On their days of presentation…

Vergil is dressed in a black cotton shirt, matching working trousers and a blue silk tie. His father is proud that a young man who might be deemed new to the world has taken on the responsibility of dressing himself. Dante, on the other hand, would require assistance three days after this.  
The younger twin has finally earned his long-wanted time-slot, and the swap was done at the last minute, right after they wake up that morning.  
What happened then is not of the current concern.

He realized that only when he stood at the front of the presentation room he started feeling uneasy, having only mentally prepared his speech even if his slideshow is sufficient for it.  
When he stepped forward from the laptop connected to the projector, Dante held two thumbs up for him. 'Lucky bastard…' Nay, however, nodded, as always.

He took in a steady breath and put on his casual look, the expression of a near-scowl.  
"A very good morning I bid the class, teacher in charge and my fellow friends…"  
It struck him as odd that he spoke that last part upon instinct despite having two friends so far: his neighbor and his brother.

The speech he makes seems to be capturing people's attention, though, which is one of the objectives of the presentation and what he hoped would not happen. 'I don't care if I don't get marks for the audience to respond to eye contact. Please, just don't look at me.'  
He tried to ignore his own surprise at the interest he has captured when he speaks of what he predicts will be the future of humankind. Even Matt is taking notes as if it is a real lesson.  
"… There will come a time when humans that are deemed useless will be eradicated so that only the useful can make progress on the world."

With that he concludes his speech. He walked automatically from the front of the room after retrieving his pen-drive.  
"I'd like to borrow that Power Point file of yours later if possible. I wanted to see if you took it right out of the book I was going to write," Nay informed him.  
"I did not," he vehemently refuted it.

On Thursday, both of them sat, slightly entertained by the first and second presenters. Come Dante's turn, he confidently rose to the occasion. His shoes do not have laces at the moment, so he is unlikely to trip over them.  
It was hard to imagine that the same person who begged him for his mercy for one whole week is now standing proud to speak loudly of one of his passions. In any case, he sensed there is a possibility that this moment of self-comfort will not last too long.

"Do you have any questions?" Dante asked as part of a regular routine for those who had time to spare.  
For him to question is to admit that he does not know. To question in ridicule of the well-dressed idiot is to sink to his level. He could allow Nay to do that for him, but she is neither a questioner nor a jester.  
"Good."

* * *

A week after their Oral Presentation – and after some days of mid-semester break – the students received a pamphlet each. It was all the teachers could do to distract them from dwelling on their poor Oral Presentation results, if they are.

"The MUFY Games Day will be held on the third of April," Dante read out.  
"Since I'm not a boy, I won't be in the same team as you are – unless it is the Tele-Match that they state here – so I'll opt for Street Soccer," Nay told them.  
Someone had asked a teacher what Tele-Match is. It is a series of games played by five boys and five girls, making a team of ten, that are said to be 'fun', if the playing students are good at no other sport.

"Don't expect me to double up with you on tennis _or_ badminton," Vergil spoke suddenly.  
"I've wondered earlier if you're up for Tele-Match rather than any of these other games," Dante stated, trying to imagine Vergil actually being able to play any of these games. Basketball, badminton, tennis, table tennis… but they have played soccer in a team with Nay last year. Maybe he would have a chance there.  
He tried not to smirk at the possibility that Vergil would be at his mercy for some reason. At the same time, his brother stared at him as if he had grown horns.

"We need two more players…"  
Dante's ears perked up at the sound of that voice. He turned his head to see that Brian's group is again together at heads, John barely reaching their height. "What for?"  
Jimmy stumbled and slid two feet to his left. "You shouldn't creep on us like that!"  
"You're the only one he's creeping on," Zack pointed out.  
"Speak for yourself… so, Dante, can you find another person to join our soccer team?" Brian requested of him.

Dante rolled his eyes in surprise. He looked back to see his brother in conversation with Nay regarding socks.  
"For a second there I thought you're considering Nay to join. I mean, your brother doesn't look… fit enough?" John muttered.  
"Nay's got her own team, and Verge is a better player than most people I've met." Last year, ever since he talked Vergil into playing soccer with him and Nay, the more demonic twin had nearly seriously injured him almost every time they go down to the field, but it was worth watching Vergil being bothered by the unwanted attention he garners.

Vergil raised his eyes from his college planner and did not like the look Dante was giving him at the moment.


	8. Games Day Gladiators

**Do My Calculations**

I thank whoever's stuck with this series for as long as I have. In the meantime, I'm sorry there's been such a delay; this piece is supposed to be up a month ago. I've done a lot of things on impulse this week, and that includes typing this chapter down.  
I know I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong.

Entry Eight: Games Day Gladiators

The day began when Dante's alarm clock rang at five minutes to six.  
'What the hell does he think he can achieve by waking up as early as I do?'  
The minute Vergil sat up in his bed, Dante has already claimed use of the bathroom.

At campus…

He looked disheartened that everyone – including him – will have to wear their program T-shirt on that day. In his case, his intake T-shirt is in blue: not deep, but bright and fluorescent blue. Anybody within a mile can spot what pre-U program he belongs to in that shirt.

"_You're_ complaining," Vergil told Dante. He despised the color, as do many people in their Mathematics class. He liked blue; he is just irritated at its overly-bright shade and its polyester material, not to mention its turtleneck-cuff fashion.

"Your team's ready to kick, Roslyn," somebody told a girl whom Vergil suspected belongs to Nay's team and accounting class. Not so far off yet not close by either, Brian did not look comfortable at the sight of the person. "He's one member of the contending teams. If we want to win, we've got to give it our all," the agreed team captain told Dante. Three of the other four looked uncertainly at Vergil.

The stray soccer ball stopped in its motion as Vergil's sports shoe pins it to the wooden Multi-Purpose Hall floor. Shortly upon its release, the tip of the right shoe crashed into the side of the hard rubber, sending it flying low over the floor only to be stopped by a hard shin.

"I think we've found ourselves a winner – I mean, a fit contestant," Zack said to his teammates.

His bright eyebrows rose. "What's this?" he asked Nay.  
"It's a bottle of hot-sauce."  
"Why do you intend to give me this in the middle of a crowd before we're assigned to our locations?"  
"While Dante's with his friends, it's wise to give you something you should train yourself to face. After that, if he challenges you in a hot-stuff match, you'll be well-prepared."  
"What about you?"  
"I've used it enough. It's about time something _that_ crazy gets passed on."

The nerdy announcer instructed the students to line up and register their names now that their teachers and lecturers are at the registration tables.

Down the cold floor of the street soccer field, someone yearns for a person with at least one game's experience to judge their game.

Down the field of green and lush grass, seven players get ready for their first match.

Matt clapped a hand to his forehead. Their positions have not yet been decided even as they walk down the stairs to the location of the match.  
"Chill, dude, we'll find someone to be the goalkeeper," Jimmy told him.  
"Dante's guarded the goalposts before," Vergil spoke for them to hear.

They brightened at this highlighted fact.  
"What; are you crazy? That'll waste my potential as the striker!" he protested.  
"I can't be the goalie," John told the rest; his height would suit him better beyond the middle of the field.

Vergil rolled his eyes; despite her height, Nay had been an efficient keeper.  
"Jimmy's tall; he'll be the goalkeeper," Brian suggested.  
The mentioned person groaned at this.  
"You can remove your glasses, man."

The first match had been brutal.  
Their opponents – foes – were big-bodied, abominable international students who are used to competing with smaller players.

John tried not to show the pain on the surface of his right knee. Some unmeasured minutes into the game, he managed to score a goal.  
Dante had not scored yet in that match, but his kicks are painful impacts on even hard-trained flesh.  
Jimmy has stood harder impacts than these.  
Busily running his position as a defender, Vergil would have been covered with the most bruises instead of Zack were it not for his demon half of the blood. There is a chance he can get tanned engaging himself in outdoor activities, but there is always a way out of it.

After the break they took when two other teams occupy the field, he stood up to straighten his back.  
"?" He wondered why Brian was approaching him.  
"Dante, I'm thinking of a different formation. The next team we're going against isn't as tough, but they still look hard to beat –"  
"Brian, I'm not Dante," he told the man.

Cursing under his breath, Brian rolled his eyes and looked for the other platinum-haired half-demon twin.  
Then Vergil realized his hair is no longer supported by gel, but slicked with sweat. The messiness that was created by artificial wind – running around – must have added to the confusion. He checked his shoes and compared them to Dante's; the latter wore shoes of a silvery color while he wore black. Those are the only marks of difference between the two besides their personalities because they wore dark grey trousers both.  
He suppressed a groan of complaint when he observed the slow movement of time.

"How long is it until our next match?" he asked Matt.  
"It's going to be pretty long. I see a lot of penalties tossed around," he informed.  
"Thanks. That's all I need to know."

In comparison, the girls do not seem to take time as long as the boys do since they have fewer players, no allocated positions, no proper goalpost and a concrete field too small for them to compete in.

Vergil frowned. Nay is not for scoring goals; she prevents the opposition from doing that. Her team of girls just about her size seems battered up; it must be their second match. One team of older-seeming girls bore similarity to the first team he and Brian's crew went against.

"You're not planning on joining her team, are you?"  
He nearly choked on his tongue at that. Dante had been silently following him.  
"Not unless you want Brian's team to lose."  
"Since when did you care about winning for my team? And his, at that," Dante spoke with mistrust.  
Vergil did not answer. Their neighbor had just gotten up from another fall.

"Alright, be your usual silent self. I'm going to chat with the girls since they're having a time-out session."

He did respond to that by being the first to approach Nay. "Not what you expected, is it?"  
"Verily not," the short-haired girl responded, wiping marks off her glasses.  
"The referee is –" Sarah seemed to want to make a comment of the lady in the hat, but she would not allow herself to lower her standards of speech.  
"I think you deserve the lecturer who refereed for us; he won't care how close the ball comes to being out as long as the game's kept short of fuss," Dante said to cheer them up.  
"He allowed that?" Nay looked ready to thank him, but as a stickler for rules, Roslyn looked discomfited at that.

"Hope you win," Vergil offered little words, but they were aimed to encourage one person, so the rest of the team thought.  
"I bet he has the hots on you, Nay."  
"Oh, shut it. He's just a neighbor."  
"Hey, what about me?" Dante still wishes to chat with them, it seems.

"I think you're needed in the next game, Dante."  
"Really?"  
"I meant yours."

That is when Vergil knew he has not much time for dilly-dally.

The last game…

The opposing striker aimed at the unattended goalposts.  
The keeper catches the ball and tosses it.  
A member of the opposition is about to claim the ball until the taller of the defenders sent it in one hard kick to the opposite goalposts. It did not score them their goal, but the team did not lose hope.  
John passed the ball to Dante.  
Dante passed the spherical air-filled rubber thing to Matt.  
Matt passed it to Brian.  
Brian evades an opponent and passes it to Dante.  
Dante scores.

Cheers rose for the chivalric team of seven. Screams came from some girls there, who were allowed out of the street soccer area because their team did not make it to the finals. The team that lost to Brian's will compete with another similar-ranking team to contend for second-place.  
From what he could make of this observation, Nay's team must be playing their final game. Few girls and some male watchers are left at the concrete field, watching the tight tussle unfold.

"It's only fair; Verge and I got gold trophies, and… you got silver," Dante remarked after the ceremony of trophy presentations.  
"Do you mean to prove that boys will always be better than girls at soccer?" She has a long list of complains about how unfair it is that street soccer is hardly similar to actual soccer.

However, he held notice that her eyes seem to always search for someone in the crowd, and will not find anchor. She is definitely looking for her eye-magnet, whom Vergil silently presumed did not come on this day of games that are thought by the organizers to be _fun_ like in the Tele-Match rather than competitive as at the soccer field and concrete court.

Vergil's narrow, icy eyes shot to the ceiling; it was not as if he would see anything there, but he suspected that something will happen, if not then, another time.

* * *

The hot-sauce is complete randomness. It seems a pretty short chapter, and it didn't take me a long time. I'll try to come up with the next chapter since a lot's been going on.


	9. Chats of Evil

**Do My Calculations**

I've been struggling for ideas on this one. A friend of mine was actually relieved that I have not studied at all for the exams. As if anyone _could_ study; I've been hearing some other classmates of mine saying that their loss of interest in studying had kicked in at the wrong time, right when exams are just around the corner. But I digress; here's something I've worked on between one week of papers and the other.  
Insert words of thanks here beside the disclaimer: I know I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong.  
But I own Kester.

Entry Nine: Chats of Evil

The three are doing their revision work now that the final examination season is approaching. However, when they planned to revise, some of them do not take the word as most people acknowledge the work to mean.

Only Vergil took studying seriously. If he did not, they would think he had a problem.  
Nay is writing something irrelevant to their college syllabus, as usual.  
Dante is browsing through a catalogue for airsoft guns, wondering which model he would find most useful.

"We have Ebony and Ivory at home. Are you sure you still need something for you to use to shoot targets, if you can find any?" The elder twin closed his hardcover notebook with a snap.  
"Well, I'd like something that I can use to shoot people but let them live with less lethal results," he mused.  
"What use would that be in college if you're not allowed to cause chaos in the corridors?" Nay asked.

Dante straightened and leaned back casually to think of _creative_ ways of having the airsoft guns come in useful.

The day being a glorious Thursday without Mathematics and Accounting, Nay had brought along her flute case, along with its contents: unassembled parts of a metal flute. The cloth bag containing the case is in his reach, but a classical instrument is not of much interest to him at the moment. Vergil and the owner of the flute stared from the case to Dante, then back again, exchanging glances in a wonder if Dante will actually find a reason to buy an airsoft gun. After that, he would buy the pellets – bullets – as well. There is also the possibility that he could ask Nay to help store some of the bullets in the flute case, but the two would hate to think what plastic, spherical things could do to the interior make-up of a musical instrument.

"I think I'll take a handgun model; it's compact, so it's easier to carry it around without the security guards noticing," he said to them.  
At the word 'compact' she had started to pay attention, but the rest of the words settled in her mind in an odd order. "Does that include carrying them in your pants?"  
The 0.5 lead broke as Vergil loses his concentration on the seventh Accounting chapter. He quickly retracted the mechanical pencil so not to lose out on this conversation.  
Dante, on the other hand, gazed at her in the same manner as would a frog timidly ogle a scientist who is about to dissect it.  
"What? It's not like you'll forget to turn the Safety button on and the trigger would suddenly pull when the barrel is stuck between your underwear and you."  
How she can think of these possibilities horrified the twin in red.

At this point of the conversation, Vergil stored away his Accounting papers alongside his hardcover notebook. He has more reason to study than merely excelling his examinations with flying colors; he was beaten in the last test of that particular subject _by a girl!_ He had gone wrong somewhere while doing the paper, but no part of it was Dante's fault. True, Nay's score is not confirmed to be the highest in that less-than-bright class of theirs, but it was higher than even Vergil's.  
He is determined to defeat her in the game later on, which is another good thing if she keeps her non-studying routine in check.  
It is better, if it should be acknowledged, that Dante _will not_ study.  
He needed a drink.

As usual in the cafeteria, there are promoters of sorts near the entrance. Some of them were publicizing a new phone network, but he desired not to put up with such bother. Other booths had been set up for charity sales or the occasional snack stands. Last week, the promoters for contact lens products had been so persistent in convincing him to try out the product and see if he would like it.  
As if his blue eyes needed shielding in this vast environment of versatile people.

The line to queue up to pay for his can of soda was long, but Kester's raised hand caught his attention. It meant that he allowed Vergil to jump the queue.  
It was a normal thing to do for 'friends'.

* * *

"Hey, Dante," Brian greeted; two out of four of his close friends tagged along with him at the moment. They are Matt and John.  
"Yo. So have you studied yet?" Dante asked him specifically, but Matt groaned first.  
"I did what I could, but to memorize every procedure in drawing a diagram in Economics is like taking up Tai Chi."  
To which John responded: "To _you_. By the way, Tai Chi ain't that hard."  
"Ever tried it?" Matt asked in retaliation.

Brian tried to ignore the two. "To be honest, I don't feel any changes in my daily schedule. From eight to ten, I'd read comics. From eleven to twelve, I'd slip notes with the others unless it's a test. From two to four I'll… um… read magazines. In between those times I'd socialize, rest or check out girls."  
"You mean you never study?" Dante asked him.  
"Of course I don't. I'm a lazy person." He helped himself to a seat while the two edge towards the balcony to argue in half-open air. "Speaking of being lazy, where's Vergil?"  
"I hope you weren't talking about me being lazy."

While Brian had to confront the elder twin, Nay waved at the other nerd who stood at Vergil's side.  
"Catch you later; I have to finish my sandwich on my way to the library," he told whoever that was listening before leaving them to their talks.  
"_On his way_ to the – he truly thinks he hasn't much time," Dante commented.  
"Well, he certainly took the time to talk to me about accounting," Vergil responded, not meeting Nay's eyes.  
"It's okay to seek assistance from those you feel more comfortable with," Nay told him; he did sound like she owed him some knowledge.

"You're not planning on taking the Bachelor of Psychology degree next year, are you?" Vergil asked her.  
"'Course I'm not. It's only rational. I mean, that's the reason why I picked a team that has at least one other girl during the Orientation team games."  
"Yet here you are."  
That was from Matt. It appeared that he and John have put a sort of end to their minor argument.

Nay looked around and realized that she was the only girl at that table with Vergil sitting next to her, Brian another seat away, Dante opposite of her and the two other boys occupying the other seats adjacent to his.

"You're right. What _am_ I doing here?" she asked in confusion.  
"Vergil's the one you can seek comfort from, remember?" Brian said to her.  
The mentioned one turned to him to say: "Why don't you shut the f–"  
"Sarah nagged at Don's swearing for a good reason," John immediately shot up, hoping to alleviate his rising temper.  
"This is why the guys said I'm the evil one," Brian then pointed out, shrugging lightly.

"How can you be evil? Aren't you just turning eighteen?" Dante asked him. Vergil rolled his eyes at his younger brother's ignorance.  
"Hel-LO? Did you even notice how I manipulated you and created conflicts? Manipulation is the first art you have to learn to be evil, you know," Brian responded.  
At this, Dante kept a note to himself to keep a closer eye on his twin.  
"You're right anyway about the comfort part. But we're neighbors; nothing more," Nay told Brian. She still stored her mechanical pencils away in case their talk will take the six of them elsewhere.

"_I'm_ a neighbor, too," Dante added.  
Matt and Brian looked at him blankly.

"I'm bored. If you guys aren't obsessed with studying, I'm going to walk aimlessly around campus," Brian told them before leaving. Matt rose from his seat and followed suit.  
John told them that he would catch up with them later.  
"Speaking of manipulating, he totally made me forget about my drink," Vergil muttered, tossing his can of soda into his backpack. He can always drink it later.  
"He's very good at distracting." Judging by John's tone, he was not projecting his friend in a favorable light.  
"Is he, now?" Dante asked, faking the drama in his voice.

John made sure that Brian and Matt have really left the land of yellow tables before he told this to the three in a whisper:  
"Brian points things out and tries to sound smart. At least, I think he does. He thinks he's evil, and he can look evil when he wants to, but he isn't the real evil mastermind among us five."  
An uncomfortable silence passed before Dante could bring himself to ask: "Then who is?"  
"It couldn't be Matt. You wouldn't be evil unless you're actually planning to win our favors. I say Zack looks suspicious," Nay contemplated.  
"I can't believe you wouldn't even suspect that it's Jimmy."  
"What?"  
"I can say, though, that Brian's only our front of evil. The real mastermind of us is Jimmy. He doesn't show it, but we act under his orders."  
"Since you're the middle-man who breaks these secrets to us, could you tell us what your plans are?" Dante questioned.

The diminutive college student got off his seat. "Are you nuts? We're only boys of the higher institution. I think the soonest we can come up with a scheme is in our first university year."  
"This just proves that no one is too young to be manipulative," Nay concluded as she stares after him.  
Dante can still feel Brian's evil eyes watching his back. Or was it Vergil's?

* * *

The frog idea is courtesy of what my classmate had remarked on another day. Her Biology class at the time involved dissecting frogs – how common are frogs that education centers _always_ use them? – and one person did not turn up for it. When he came to our table, she teased him and called him a coward.  
Precious times.  
Sorry for only making a filler; I was hoping to get a plot point from this one.


	10. Turning Point

**Do My Calculations**

I really immensely thank the reviewers and those who had stuck with the story after the fillers. I do hope I've made progress as of now.  
I know I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong. Spencer is a fictional demon associate of Sparda's.

Entry Ten: Turning Point

The final exams for their first semester seem to have passed in quite a short while, and both boys are glad of that. When the second Monday paper is over with, Nay informed them that she will be gone from Friday to Sunday that week for a family trip.  
"You get to travel a lot," Dante said to her wistfully.  
"I wouldn't have wanted to go there, but my mom likes traveling, and she's a senior accounting manager for an airline company." Comparing their tones, she sounded more regretful.  
"We'll still see you before then, won't we?" Vergil spoke the words to lighten up the situation and make Dante worry less.  
Hiding his thoughts behind a cheerful smirk, the red-wearing twin said: "The deal will be as usual: We'll watch your house while you buy us souvenirs."

A screech of wheels interrupted their laughter. Sparda was just ten minutes late, but he has avoided three accidents on his way, which Vergil can tell even if no scratch marred the imposing vehicle.  
"Don't worry about the Harrier, boys and Nay. There are just so many freaks on the road – how low can driving instructors' standards get?" the demon within a human appearance chuckled.  
"Generally lower than yours, Dad," Dante answered, not allowing Vergil to point out his driving habits, which dangers he will never be conscious of. Besides, Nay has not even started driving yet; to have Sparda intimidate her with stories of the road is just not healthy for self-motivation.  
"I understand that your exams are over and you're going on holiday with your family soon," the driver stated to the neighbor in the passenger seat.  
"It's a typical getaway break. At least Saigon isn't an expensive destination, according to my mom."

'_Note to self: Have Spencer sent to check conditions in Ho Chi Minh City.'_  
Vergil straightened in his seat. That thought was loud in Sparda's mind central, though – sitting directly behind the driver's seat – he might be the only one in the car that heard.  
He decided it was best to tell nobody.

* * *

Even the books his father contributed to the library did not aid much in entertaining him. Most of them are only old poetry anyway, or manuscripts of songs in languages long dead. There had been a few picture books illustrating non-human creatures that are less popular in the modern majority-species culture. However, even _those_ did not amuse him.

Playing out on the tarmac road is neither a safe nor sane option for a person his age or even Nay's. The haze that came with the neighboring country's increase of forest fires could only be avoided by staying indoors or wearing a breathing mask at least of the basic sort. It is not life-threatening at the moment, but between the sunlight and the interior fluorescent lighting, Vergil would pick the latter.

Their parents found it an improvement in discipline that Dante has had his days scheduled for the holidays, but they have not known that the items on his agenda mostly involve socializing online and playing computer games.  
"So what would you do to keep yourself in shape?" the elder twin questioned the younger.  
"I'd go to Nay's house and chase her around," he joked, changing his leg position on the chair he sat on.  
"Did you want her _that_ badly?" Vergil pursued, but not very seriously.  
Dante shrugged and pretended not to have heard him. They did not mention it in speaking or in mind, but they acknowledged it a taboo to express their affections for someone they were so casually friends with. As for now, Vergil allowed the topic to drift off and gave a minute's delay until he starts talking about what to do during their holidays.

"I say we base our futures on our past. I know how cliché this sounds, but what do you think we've achieved so far?" the twin in red posed an open question.  
Not knowing what to answer, Vergil thought of narrowing his answer options down. "The two of us alone, or with Nay?"  
"Personally, bro. All I know is that I would've been dead meat without your help on the 20-mark Economics question," Dante responded.

He decided not to speak of this aloud in case the desktop computer's webcam was on and their conversation would be recorded. Even if Dante had only sat back to read absurd bulletin posts on a community site, he thought silence was best.  
They have made a variety of friends whether or not they are close to them.  
They have seen things in campus that would have scared the living daylights out of commoners. The campus authorities do not seem to highlight these dangers, though, priding themselves on the way they secure the place.  
At this age, anyway, it seems their traits marked by their demon blood are surfacing, like when Vergil shot the crystals at Brian. After that time, though, he had refined his summoning of the crystals and found out they were supposed to be shaped like swords or daggers.  
They also found that evil is indefinite and lurks everywhere they go.  
Most of all, they have survived their father's driving.

"Look at Nay's 'condition' post here. She says she's about to take driving lessons," Dante suddenly brightened.  
"What would that mean?" Vergil asked him, not paying much attention as he goes on to cast another ghost sword.  
He stared at him blankly.  
Vergil tossed the miniature sword in the air like a coin for a few seconds until it dissolved into fragments of pale smoke in his right hand. The rest of the molecules are scattered by machine-conditioned air.  
"She's going to acquire a special skill. You already have, so what about me?" He thought the next topic drift was necessary.

"You're already able to drive. I can, too, but normally I'll leave it to you. Remember when you first got your license last year?"  
"That wasn't my point."  
Not paying Dante much attention, he did not carry the argument on.

He thought of his saying, though, about basing the future on his past. He met the seemingly human neighbor on coincidence the previous year. They became classmates, and they are the only ones she remained in steady contact with nowadays due to where they are located. They dealt with academic issues. They chose to observe the social life of human beings. Dante would go for a more hands-on experience, but he is not person-oriented. He has tasks to perform, but it was still vague what they are. She observed because she was alienated. He observed because he wanted to know; because knowledge is power, and for that he wanted knowledge.

But he never fails to observe her patterns in English class whenever the eye-magnet turns up. The said person chose to sit at the hind regions of their classroom while the twins and their neighbor sat up front, but she would occasionally glance back just to see his face. They have hardly made contact with that person, but the thought that she still fancies the stranger when at the same time holding friendly feelings for him still bothered him.

'_There's already "My Best Friend's Wedding" I remembered Mother watching, but I can't put up with this already-molded idea of a friend still pursuing a friend who already likes someone else.'  
'Then how come you're still not admitting your feelings?'_

He left the room. They had nothing really relevant to talk about anyway, knowing they are the opposites of a coin. They are both made of the same thing, but they do not quite see eye to eye.

Their terrace house is not quite the structure to explore even after the second year of staying there. The library has become boring too long ago. The bedrooms depend on the occupants that manage them. The bathrooms always smell clean and the kitchen below stays pleasantly spotless.

Vergil wondered why he never paid attention to the storeroom under the staircase. He knows that it never served as a bedroom for any of the house's current occupants, but aside from childhood toys and not-often-necessary tools, he had not bothered before to wonder what else lurks there.

He switched on the storeroom lights and entered. Pushing aside crystal balls and mystical-looking trinkets, he took note of the subtle way the boxes are arranged to cover up a portion of the dusty floor. A movement of one box being separated from the other revealed that the boxes – which are filled with clothes of various origins – hid a trapdoor the size of about three square feet.

Making sure that nobody knew he went into the storeroom, he closed the door and switched the light off, hoping his senses are strong enough to navigate him back there. If it was too dark, his ghost swords are always there for him, and he can control the intensity of the light they project.

After moving aside the rest of the corrugated cardboard boxes, he lifted the trapdoor by the ring and stepped down carefully. The light from the ghost swords floating by his shoulders showed that someone had used this passage, though not too recently. Judging from the height of the passage from floor to ceiling, someone really tall must have found the use of the place convenient indeed. It might have been a basement for all he knew; the area is also long and wide, but there is a different set of stairs not very far from the one he descended along. This one he climbed up, and after that he found another trapdoor, obviously blocked by the weight that also kept the floor-door hidden.

If strength alone did not assist him here, he had to somehow use the swords and not ruin the trapdoor at the same time.  
'D'oh, they're _ghost_ swords! They can pass through solid substances if they wanted to!'  
Hoping that his imagination of how the boxes are positioned is correct, he willed the swords to push them in a direction that got them off the wooden surface of the trapdoor.

When he opened it, his surroundings are dark. Some light did come through a slatted door, but his heart nearly stopped when he heard that voice calling out to someone upstairs.  
"Do you want the original chocolate bar or the one with mousse interior?"  
She has gone to fetch a food item for someone who wanted it. She did not take note of the sound of movement in the storeroom that was once infested with termites.

Retreating to the basement area, he suddenly smiled at the thought of being able to protect the neighboring premises more securely now that he knew how. He avoided any tempting intentions, but if those demons did infiltrate her house, he knew he would be ready for it.

Less curious of the vicinity now, he can see that the brick-walled basement is void of other storage items aside from one crate of rations that would have to wait a year until it expires. Looking at the current time, he would have to wait until he can explore more of this fascinating place he never knew existed.

When he returned to his room, his meaningful smile drew his brother's attention. "Where did you go? And why are you smiling like you've done something crazy to someone?"  
"You know, Dante, there is this saying that just gets more popular by the passing days: Smile, and the world will smile with you. Laugh, and the world will think you're a maniac."  
"I say _you're_ a maniac. What were you up to?"

"Ignorance is bliss, brother. Ignorance is bliss…"

He happily ignored Dante for the moment while writing in his planner in ancient runes he picked up from somewhere.

* * *

That's right. Sparda may not be the best driver to send you back and forth from college, but he'd still protect those who are close to him.  
Hmm… is this where the fun starts? I'll check on the next chapter.


	11. Daddy's Catacombs

**Do My Calculations**

Cookie shower! You've got it; it's courtesy of those who had stuck with the story even after seeing the fillers I came up with. After Turning Point, the plot can expand from there. I know I changed my pen name and also the primary and secondary genres of this fanfic to suit with what I'm bringing it.  
I don't own the sons of Sparda, but we all know where they belong. I watch a bit of Mythbusters, but who did you think got me to that? My lovable younger bro, of course.

Entry Eleven: Daddy's Catacombs

After being woken up for the fifth time in the middle of his night's sleep, Vergil gave up shoving his brother toward their bedroom wall and decided it was time to talk.  
"Fine, Dante, what is it?"  
"You know what I'm going to ask. What was it that you're so happy about that you're not telling me?"

Exasperation found him at last. It seems the rapture of finding secrets had not been around for longer than expected.

"I found a basement in the storeroom; now go to sleep. If you want to go down there, you'd best get a flashlight of some sort," he mumbled. He hoped it was not his drool he felt on the corner of his mouth, but he thanked the darkness of their room right now.  
"Is there anything special down there?"  
"Unless you're chicken, go check it out yourself."  
"I say _you're_ chicken!"

He verily hoped to get knocked out anytime soon, but he was too awake to keep lying in his bed now.

"Just tell me what time it is."  
"Three fifty A.M," Dante replied casually.

Muttering something foul but not in English, he kicked his brother in the face while jumping out of bed. He did not respond to Dante's whines as they walk downstairs to the kitchen.  
Now he also hopes that Dante did not notice him walking into a wall in the unlit hallway.

"Dad?"  
Sparda turned at the sound of one of his sons' voice. 'Busted,' his mind echoed the phrase commonly used in the amusing documentary show he watched with Eva two nights ago.  
Vergil's eyes widened fully awake when the lights went on because he saw the real form of his father. The demon form.  
"This is a little unexpected," the elder twin remarked as the younger gaped. He had not seen this sight for years too long for him to recall.

Energy crackled around the colossal form before the demon reverts to a human wearing his night-clothes.

"That was cool. How come you don't do that at other times when we're awake at night?" Dante asked, enthusiasm unendingly conquering his fear.  
"I only had to do that once a week for half an hour. Normally I'd do this elsewhere, but seeing as we got rid of junk in the dining room recently, I thought this place was good enough."  
"Great, Dad. See you in the morning; Vergil's going to show me a basement in the storeroom."

Before Vergil could react to that, Sparda's booming (even human) voice froze them in their steps.  
"Wait! You knew about the basement, too?" He seems mildly surprised.  
Dante shrugged. "Well, not until Verge told me there _was_ a basement."  
"How did you know about this?" There was conviction in the sire's tone; in rare times did it intimidate Vergil.

"I – well, you see – I was bored of having nothing much to do for holidays, so I just decided to see if there's anything interesting to take up in here. The tools aren't always used."  
Sparda looked thoughtful when the tools were mentioned, but he did not allow himself to be distracted.  
"So you're bored. Well, I can think of less convincing reasons, such as that you wanted some space where you can play football in. But, okay, here we are, with both of you knowing that the 'basement' exists."  
"Mom didn't know, did she?" Dante asked.

The Legendary Dark Knight placed a finger on his lips. He then proceeded to open the door of the storeroom under the staircase without switching the lights on.  
Vergil knew Dante would project the thought 'Chicken,' to him if he knew he had done so during daylight.  
However, he had not found out about the box of switch-controls that can operate the lighting in the basement.

"Welcome to my weekly hangout, boys. I have a multitude of items hidden in here, but to keep the excitement running, I'll have you scour the place for weeks before you really find where –"  
"Just show us, Father," Vergil cut him short.

Sparda blew a long sigh. His elder son had forgotten the meaning of fun.

The excitement still ran for Dante, though. With itching fingers he sped off before his father could step forward. Aided by the specially-chosen lights, he scanned for niches in the walls and protruding formations that might give a 'click' when moved in the right direction. One stem of battered-looking splinter did; the chain of movements revealed a tea table.  
"Weeks, Dad?" he asked as the platforms move the furniture into place.

"Okay, so you foiled me in the first half of a minute. I'm still going to show you –" he was cut short again as Dante found a bathroom.  
"How convenient!"  
Vergil continued watching as his brother does the entirety of the duty on his own: looking for interesting features in the basement he thought was only for leisure of space. After unearthing the tea table, bathroom, pool table, foosball table, games-drawer, dressing table and jukebox, though…

"That's all good, but something's still missing."  
"_What_?"  
Their father chuckled. Vergil looked up from turning the handles of one side on the foosball table.  
"_This_ is what's missing," he declared, pressing a camouflaged button on a wall where it is obvious nothing is placed there even after other walls are occupied.

The wall was actually a wooden cabinet painted on the back with additional texture. It was not how the storage container turns to reveal itself that amazed the twin sons of Sparda.  
Despite the amount of room it has, only three blades occupied the weapons-cabinet.  
"That's my share of the collection. I always thought Ebony and Ivory should be kept here, too, but I wasn't ready to show you the others yet," he confessed.

"I thought we keep Ebony and Ivory close at hand so that we can protect ourselves when intruders visit the house," Vergil remarked, inspecting the long slender blade of a sword labeled 'Yamato'.  
Sparda shrugged it off, but there is still something he could not dismiss.  
"Who built this basement, Dad, and why?" Dante questioned.

He wordlessly went to the tea tabled and poured himself a cup. He gestured for the two to have some with him as well, though the questioner was reluctant to; he did not like tea, especially when the sugar pot had not been restocked.  
"Before we moved here last year, I made plans ahead of plans and built this place so I can still privately enjoy my time as a demon, but I neglected the fact that there aren't many things here that are specially made for demons."  
"Could you explain the staircase leading to our neighbor's house?" That definitely came from Vergil.

Sparda looked distracted again, perhaps trying to recall why exactly he built a passageway to one particular neighbor's house.  
"Now hold on…" he muttered. "That passageway has existed even before I excavated this area."  
"You mean you just built one there even if you didn't know what it's for?" Dante asked the question for him.  
"I just thought it safe if I had access to more than one house. Plus, you boys have gotten along well with Nay, haven't you?"

Vergil was totally caught by surprise. "Don't change the topic!" Dante was surprised to see a spot of red on his brother's pale face.  
"Really, now! After all this time, don't you think it's proper to protect the home of someone you cared about? They're the only family in the neighborhood that made contact with us willingly."  
Come to think of it, he remembered how glad he was when he found how open she was with a foreigner like him. Even the kids in high school thought him and Dante to be nothing more than a couple of arrogant outsiders.  
But she has fooled others into thinking _she_ does not come from this country.  
At least college possesses a more open-minded atmosphere for a community with specific age-groups.

"How d'you think the passageway existed in the first place?" Vergil returned to the topic.  
The demon father shrugged. "Dunno. I saw dead bodies of insects, though. Termites, I think, but it must've been a long time ago when they're exterminated; I cleared the place easily."

They finished their tea and headed back upstairs, but not before switching everything in the basement off and putting everything back into its respective hiding places.

"I'm sorry I took time off your sleeping hours, boys."  
"That's alright by me. At least I got to see swords – not just toy or fencing swords, but _real_," Dante remarked.  
His lips quirked to form that fatherly smile. This is how Vergil had always seen his father, as had the public.  
"You'll use them one day, both of you. People of modern days have abandoned the art and craft of that weapon, taking up something they think safer or more elegant. I mean not to see it extinct," he told them. Rarely had he found anything so touching to speak of.

He thought of this as he tries to return to sleep even with Dante breathing 'Wow' and 'Awesome… chicks would dig me…' into the air. Maybe he should not have gotten off the habit of sleeping with his MP3 player on, but that is as much ear damage as he will get with the brighter occupant of the room, or even more than that.

In the morning...

Eva woke up to find her kids waking up much later than usual. "Well, it is holiday season, after all," she stated with a smile.

* * *

Mm, this is what I get from eating fruit. I'm having real fun writing this now. Still, it's all I could give before I go on the trip; maybe I'll get inspiration from there.


	12. Jokers and Junk

**Do My Calculations**

A good morning of DMC3-filled hours got me inspired (and it got my heart rate up – I couldn't sit for a while). I can't believe I went past my old record of Level 1500 in Bloody Palace and got to Level 2300 with Vergil. I've always identified myself as an amateur player, but having faced four bosses – Nevan, Lady, Jester and Cerberus – I don't know what to think of that. I died when I encountered a Hell Vanguard and an Abyss, the harder-to-beat, larger kind of Hell demons. Well, anyway, Jester's given me inspiration for this. I just hope he's not too off-character in this.  
I do not own Dante, Vergil, Sparda, Eva, Jester or anything else in DMC. I just own a copy of one of the games and play like a freak.

Entry Twelve: Jokers and Junk

It was Friday. Nobody was home in the house next to theirs. For once, going on the computer is not Dante's first thing to do in the morning. He normally did not shower until noon, even.

Vergil is not a fan of waiting. Such an activity only meant there is nothing better to do while something is about to end or begin.  
While he did not enjoy the company of people in general, he did not like being alone or cooped up in a house where there is not much to do.  
He found that he hated waiting for the holidays to end.  
He has to find something to do.

"Bathroom's all yours, bro," Dante called out to him, clad in a pair of torn jeans and naked from the waist up. He would not don a shirt until someone 'normal' visits the house or something.

As he shed his clothes worn the previous night in privacy, his mind remained numb of combined thoughts until the cold water from the showerhead hit him.

Sparda would be out at work, though not for such long hours that counted as necessary for rat-racers.  
Eva is also out somewhere, keeping her role as a person who is at peace with herself.  
Both of those at home are bored and worried for the house next door.

"Let's go into the basement," Dante told him after he buttoned his blue collared shirt above black slacks.  
"D'you think he'll allow us to take up his swords?" he asked, trying to recall their father's words of taking up 'the craft'.

"I'm not talking about the swords. I'm talking about going into Nay's house without breaking the front door down."  
"… You're mad," Vergil stated it clearly in his face.

It may be childish curiosity, but he seems adamant about taking charge of guarding the soulless house in the place.  
"Oh, come on, Verge! What does your heart say?"  
"Where did that come from?" he demanded, wondering whether Dante will put his shirt on for this.  
"Look into your heart, man. Don't you want to keep the sweet home safe?"  
"That's not enough reason for breaking and entering. We can _always_ guard the place from outside," Vergil affirmed.

He thought Dante may be up to something when he started rolling his eyes and lolling his head from one side to the other.  
"Gee, I don't know… Sometimes things get eaten up from the inside… Worms can be a real pain in your ass when they live in your bowels… Termites eat up wood and cause structures to collapse… STDs…"  
"Get off that, will you?"  
He finally responded at that, looking into the eyes of the more mature brother.  
"Just put a shirt on. I don't want anyone freaking out when they see you."

"You're such a prude," he muttered, taking an old red T-shirt that has faded from years of washing.  
Vergil gave a sigh before leading the way down.  
Meanwhile, Dante was happy he found out how to push his brother on, when he thought of it.  
No doubt he delayed in sneaking into the next house, walking at a slow pace to make sure he is absolutely sure of doing such a thing.

Upon opening the trapdoor, something on the other side burst and spat out paper streamers and confetti.  
Both of them were so shocked they nearly fell backwards, but Vergil caught his brother on the collar of his shirt; _now_ he should be glad he had worn one.

The storeroom door of her house was open, and a purple thing could be seen picking a fish from its aquarium by its tailfin. It struggled to slip back into the cuboid body of water when the white face of the thing opened what seems to be a mouth.

"Huh?"  
The entity turned a frowning face to Dante, at the same time letting loose the red-whitish fish. While the water-creature retreats to a safe, dark corner, the bent purple figure screamed at the sight of _two_ people who looked too alike.

Vergil pushed past his twin. "What are you doing here?" he demanded. The purple man-thing had a white face, two differently-colored eyes and a nose too long to be a human's.  
"I think I have a similar question. What are _you_ two doing here?"  
Before either twin could answer, a scepter appeared in its hands.

"I think I know the answer to that. But allow me to introduce myself as Jester. I am seeking refuge in this house for the butter cookies they have here while the department store restocks."  
"That's not what you're looking for," Vergil argued.

Jester turned thoughtfully in his soft pace as he gave them his opinion of what they were doing, whether they wanted to listen or not.

"You boys share a common girlfriend. She lives in this house with her wretched family who don't know what evil she has planned for the world. Too bad for them, though!"  
"She _isn't_ anyone's girlfriend," the spiky-haired twin vehemently declared.  
"But is she not both? She is a physically feminine confidante of yours, as far as I can recall. And you came to her house to protect it from intruders, myself included. You must trust that I mean no harm…"

Before his voice faded with the stillness of the air around them, Jester switched on the storeroom light and pushed past the two, inspecting the amount of dust in the place. "Good heavens! And I thought nobody's been here for weeks!" he exclaimed.

"You wouldn't want to get into that trapdoor," Dante warned him, but a warning can as easily be taken as a suggestion, and that's how it is for Jester.  
"What's in there for me?" The purple-dressed comedian of the medieval asked in the tone of a giddy child before a theme park ride.  
"Scorpions," Vergil answered, glancing at Dante in hopes that his younger twin would not spoil this dissuasion.

However, from the sound of Jester's excitement, he thought might have dug his own grave at this one.  
"Oh, I _love_ Scorpions! Unless you were referring to the desert animals with their exoskeletons and their jabbing tails."

Strangely, one of the mentioned arthropods started crawling up his purple shin.  
"Get it off! Get it off!" he cried, squashing it with the gleaming head of his scepter. A disgusting color smeared both surfaces following the sound of the sickening squelch.

Vergil watched for other scorpions that might have emerged by his mention because this Jester could be one dangerous fellow.  
"I suggest we get out of here – _you_ should go out the way you get in," he firmly concluded.  
"I just remembered last year on a Friday when somebody brought his pet scorpion to school. I don't know if he showed it in his class, but he certainly took it out of its carrier after-hours," Dante mentioned.

Jester considered this thoughtfully. "Memory, hmm? I am reminded by your tact and your ways of protecting this house. Yes, there was someone who negotiates his way out of things once in a while whether he needs it or not. I know I may share a tale or two about him, but no telling of tales would be complete without root beer."  
With this, he ran for the kitchen counters with a scroll of hard paper in a hand of his that did not hold the scepter.

"Should we let him go?" Dante asked his supposed superior.  
"Not until I have an idea of what's on that paper."

But even without unlocking the back grille of the house, the old-time court comedian disappeared into empty air only to leave behind the similar confetti and paper streamers.

Vergil did not wait for Dante to say anything; he just went to find a broom or two and a dustpan. Even if he is just a visitor, he was not originally invited. Therefore, he has to make up for it somehow.  
Dante took one of the brooms, wondering if he should speak when his brother showed nothing, on the surface or under.

When they began sweeping the metallic-colored remnants from the storeroom floor, though, the more rigorous of the twins decided to slack off a little and take the box of hard papers into light. It was from that box that Jester took the anonymous-looking scroll.

There was a script in which a list is written. Dante did not need to learn Sudoku to know that the coded lettering formed a list of the maps in the box.  
"Verge, can you read this?"  
"Why?"  
"Well, I doubt anyone in this house would write anything this weird apart from her."  
He took the ruled paper passed to him. Though the letters are not that of the usual, the language used is still English, and the eleven maps were drawn to show the plans of a building or two. It could be a building and a half.

When they both checked the contents of the box, there were twelve maps. The odd map, larger than the usual, contained more than plans; it had sketches of bowls, pots, skulls and probably other things expected in a very ancient age of human living. The artist probably had a minor fascination with history.

"Get a load of the patterns formed by the roads of _this_ ancient settlement. It kind of reminds me of a crop circle," Dante remarked.  
From a farther view of the paper as a whole, it did contain plans of intricate roads and city systems, and in the middle of the city is a memorial ground or a speech podium.

"Would Jester have been looking for this map instead?" Vergil wondered, frowning.  
"Well, it depends on what would have been on the other paper he took." Dante also pointed out a small scrawl of the foreign text on the list.

Vergil read it out to reveal that it explained the two maps to have been either entirely fictitious or wholly genuine. The former map is that of a colony of planets, stars and space stations while the latter is that of a civilization that had met its downfall before Year Zero.

They glanced at each other and thought the same: 'Jester took the map that would provide him no use.'

"Should we still take this box home with us, though? We could study it since it looks so much like the floor-plans of our college campus," Dante pointed out.  
"I think it's best that we don't bring it closer to our residence than the basement area."

* * *

The delay's caused by my browser, which kept crashing when I access the document editor on FF.


	13. Second Semester Beginning

**Do My Calculations**

And after the long and painful break (yes, it was pretty painful for me) I'm back with college on my shoulders! I'll expect to have less leisure-time now, so…  
I do not own Dante, Vergil, Sparda, Eva or anything else in DMC. I just own a copy of one of the games and play like a freak.

Entry Thirteen: Second Semester Beginning

Their mementos have been received the very next day subsequent to her return from the foreign country. Things were cheaper bought from there, according to the seasoned shoppers in her family.  
Nay's souvenirs for the both of them are a pair of gloves without fiber beyond the first knuckle. However, instead of red and blue, she had gotten bright yellow for Vergil and dark green for Dante.

"I'd hate to sound cliché, but what is the meaning of this?" Vergil asked.  
"Let me have a hand in this. You boys have donned on blue and red for as long as I've known you. Can't I add a little variation to that?"  
While Dante smiled in satisfaction at the shade she picked for him, his twin eyed the bright yellow gloves doubtfully. Although she had gotten those souvenirs especially for them, it did not mean they were supposed to put them on immediately. Vergil knew this, so he placed one in either pocket of his jeans. There might come a time anyway when he had to pull one out and slap Dante with it.

And they would have a load of supposed fun fighting by means of glove-slapping in campus.

He did not bring any mention of the maps Jester would have stolen, if she even found out about Jester. No harm could come to a person of normal life if she did not know a foreign entity wished to interfere with it, no matter if it failed.

Subject registration was a hassle as long as they were early. Students have been punctual this time, and like all students, they are anxious to get the registration over with so that they get the classes they wanted.  
"You're going to take five units this semester," Dante stated, turning to her and imitating a Vergil-serious face.  
"You don't have to take a class with me in it if you didn't need to," she stated; failing Mathematics A has scored a deep mark in her academic records.  
Vergil looked at the timetable again to plan out his day classes. "When's your single free period?"  
"That'll be the 1:30pm to 2:45pm slot, which means I'll be having a late lunch." Taking Globalization meant that the previous period is not free for her to have an immediate noon lunch like last semester.

Surprisingly or not, Vergil set his free period to be on the fifth like hers. Dante passed every subject in the last examination, which meant he and his brother will again share classes.

A distance away, two out of five boys were upset about their examination results when they collected their certificates. Brian and Matt are those two, regretting their lack of effort as soon as they were too late, as Johnny termed.  
"Don't talk to me." It was strange to see Brian being so distant after his intrusive inquiries the last semester. On the other hand, Matt was only looking at John with contempt. They explained that the short fellow had passed by a mark for every subject. He is indeed lucky, but not as lucky as the two other allies of theirs.  
"With Zack it's obvious that he'll get an average grade of Distinction," John said as they move on to happier news.  
"I just can't believe that I got High Distinction for Accounting and English," Jimmy remarked, still insecure of breath from his reception of the news.  
A sob can be heard from the direction of Brian's back which they are facing at the moment.

"We'll leave this to you guys to set it out," Dante said with hopeful tact, leaving alongside Vergil and Nay.

* * *

A new semester yields the coming of new students of the July batch this year, and speaking of the new students, there are several notable girls there; they are distinguished by Dante as 'hot'. A brunette, a redhead and a blonde appeared to be a trio of best friends, which could mean that nothing could get between their friendships.

In any case, the wilder son of Sparda finally found someone who caught his eye, or so he whispers to his companions during their simultaneous lunch period, after which instance he left the table immediately.

"Tell me, Vergil, has Dante ever been with anyone before?"  
"What do you mean?" The question shocked him once it is posed.  
"I'm asking if he has gone out with, been dumped by or has broken up with a girl in younger days."  
"Why are you asking this now?"  
"I'm just intrigued as a friend."  
Somehow he did not quite trust her words, but then again, she has interest in someone else. "Before we moved here, he might've gone out with innocent dates with some popular girls, but I don't know what kept him waiting for a commitment until now," Vergil stated.  
"As in, he's had a bad experience, or is it the transition of moving from one country to the other?" Nay asked.  
"One has to adapt to an environment before exploring."

He did not like to have to answer questions for his twin, but she is not _that_ hard to satisfy when it came to useless information.

"And it took him a year and a half?" Something is making her annoyingly persistent today.  
He looked up from his glass of water to make eye contact with her before gazing back into its calm surface that reflected boredom. "He didn't take as long as I did."  
Only when he realized it brought attention from his brother's to his own love life did he curse himself. "What would that mean?"  
It tasted so bitter in his mouth he found he could not speak of it himself. Were he to have been talking to another young man right now, he would have boasted that he enjoyed his singular disposition, but knowing that she _is_ a 'she', he placed an elbow on the table and let the bend of his wrist support the bridge of his nose.

Surprisingly, Nay bit her tongue after that. Her little mouth looked like it would open, but the lips just snapped back to closing on their owner's will.

Dante returned with a grin and his left hand across the bare shoulders of a young woman with flaming red hair. To describe her beauty is beyond the commoner's vocabulary, but 'mesmerizing' or 'enticing' would be the word Vergil would have used in this situation, making him straighten up to listen attentively.  
"Hey guys, meet Nevan. She's an international student from America, her documents say, but she says she's of Irish heritage," the twin in red introduced the woman to them.  
Vergil noted not to swallow his own water at the sight of her; he should take the one in a glass instead. Nay did not pay much attention, but she only appears so; she would rather observe than partake.

"How are you today?" Even her voice sounded like a melody of gentle silver bells. She extended a hand for the seated twin to grasp and shake. Its skin felt like silk to his own hand, which felt rough after the momentous brush. She seemed a little awkward shaking Nay's hand, however, who still eyed the whole scene rather than focusing one individual.

His mind raced for a reply when he remembered she still roused a question. He felt inclined to answer it until she began talking in that sweet, almost demure voice again.

"I was really looking forward to college," she stated. "I heard the dress code isn't as restricted as the one in schools."  
"We've worn uniforms last year. It's not the same, but we're relieved anyway," Dante responded. In turn, Nevan giggled slightly.

"So what subjects did you register for today? I mean, I thought after the registration, everyone would be going home or back to their rooms," Vergil asked. Registration for the July intake is on a separate day from the January intake of that year.  
"I wasn't certain of the career path I'm choosing, but apart from English and Mathematics, I plan on taking Computer Science and Economics. I heard that last subject is easier than Accounting."  
"You can guarantee that. I got 74 for it and 73 for Accounting," Nay blurted out. Her train of thoughts must have been derailed.  
Nevan laughed – the sound of it was music to the boys' ears – but she continued: "Well, at least I can confirm what I'm getting into."

Vergil tried to distract himself by looking at his watch, and the time it showed is half past two. "We've got fifteen minutes left," he told his January classmates.  
"Aw, you can go if you wanted to, Verge. I'll hang around with Nevan for a bit – you can tell me what books to get in case I don't come to class."

It was rarity for Dante to actually almost confirm that he will miss a class, and now he has reasons that are valid but not likable by classroom superiors.  
"Doesn't _that_ send you chills – I thought he was more of the Brian type, but oh well, he's got values in my point of view," Nay exclaimed.  
"At least you weren't jealous that soon she'll start hanging out with Dante more than we do," Vergil told her.  
"I'm not. Weren't you?"  
"That's ridiculous. I should actually be glad that she has taken him off my shoulders."

The boyish girl had an image of Dante piggyback-riding Vergil until she saw an A5-sized flier drop gently to the tiled campus floor.  
This is what it said:

Freshie Night 2.

* * *

Has anyone ever noticed that Nevan is 'Eva' with 'N's at the ends? I've made this connection for a long time, but I don't know if it's relevant at all. It probably isn't important with her playing a minor role in Irish folklore, but I still keep this in mind for fun.


	14. Unusual Lunch

**Do My Calculations**

Yes, we've had to do a particular novel theme study in English class for this semester. Meanwhile, here's something between study-breaks that I need to come up with.  
I do not own Dante, Vergil, Sparda, Eva or anything else in DMC. I just own a copy of one of the games and play like a freak.

Entry Fourteen: Unusual Lunch

Vergil and Dante pooled their allowances for the purchase of a book they can use for a longer time. It was not that Dante would use it much, but Vergil would.

Nay would have had the book to herself regardless of whether they paid for it or if she used her own allowance.  
The book was addictive.

Dante has invited Nevan to the event Freshie Night 2. Vergil would not go again even if the former had pleaded; judging by the sample of music played in the cafeteria at the booth where FN2 tickets can be bought, it will be as much a bore as the last one to him.  
According to Nay, as long as there is no live band performing, she will not go.  
Brian – although he had gotten over how he had to repeat a subject of his first semester – did not bother asking any staff member or function organizer whether or not he and his friends can bring the crowd to a moshing fit. Perhaps the prude adults will demand that the five wear semi-formal clothing, but none of them are fans of crisp cotton or itchy polo shirts. Maybe Zack or Jimmy would tolerate cotton, but John and Matt would sooner swallow chocolate bars whole than wear shirts with vests.  
They are also somewhat _too_ attached to their 'I-don't-give-a-shit' fashion statements to attend this fest six months after it just happened.

"Shall we attend the occasion, brother?"  
The accent in that voice made even the hardest-concentrating reader there frown and look up.  
"I think it would be entertaining, Agni."  
Those near-identical voices were considerably deep for young adults, but the two clearly possessed the look of international students from the July Intake of their foundation year program.

"It's her," Agni exclaimed with surprise at seeing the short student reading a book with a dark cover.  
"Aren't you from our Globalization class?" the more authoritative of the lookalike brothers questioned Nay.  
"I think so," she replied shortly, hoping this would not interrupt her reading for long.

Vergil found intrigue in the two who can talk to strangers so easily. "Are you twins?" he asked just for the sake of curiosity.  
"We are," the two spoke in unison. "I am Rudra, and this is Agni. We're from India."  
"Is this your boyfriend?" Agni asked Nay.

He would have praised the more youthful-looking boy's nerve if he had not been peeved at that, despite that the question was not posed to him.  
Nay, on the other hand, just frowned again and shook her head silently. She liked to talk of it as much as Vergil did, which was hardly ever brought up under even the most boring of circumstances.  
"No; he's my house-neighbor and he has a twin brother, you see. Now, _that_ twin brother has a girlfriend. I heard you're going to the Freshie Night event."  
"Yes." "We are." Agni and Rudra spoke respectively. "Will we run into them there?" Agni asked.  
"I'm sure you will," she responded, rolling her eyes. She was glad to return to the excitement of the book when the brothers left.

"They're sure annoying."  
"You're telling me."

While they knew Dante seemed doubtless in attending this Freshie Night on Thursday without Vergil's accompaniment, he seemed to always look to them for tips in dealing with Nevan. It is true then, what Vergil said about his treatment of commitment as something new, and having Nay around helps Dante understand some women better.  
Some. Not all.

Lunch with Dante had become less than a regular thing nowadays, so when he did join them for lunch, he contributed to the initiations of conversations.  
"I used to think falling in love is for people who wanted boring lives," he remarked, but did not emphasize on how boring his two tablemates were. "But there's this feeling I had after meeting and knowing her, and I feel – she's worth it, Verge. I mean, she's worth giving a shot at."  
'You mean that she won't give you a big opportunity cost even if you broke up with her,' Nay thought those cold words, but neither of them listened.

They can sense, though, that she had suddenly gone still while staring at her plate of fish-and-chips. The dish of the cafeteria is normally served as a slab of fried fish meat, a bunch of French fries with a quarter of them burnt from overcooking, a little cup of tartar sauce and a lump of vegetables in a nonexistent corner of the plate. It was the corner of a cabbage leaf she stared at, focusing on a dark, moving tendril that crawled and snaked on the green surface that faded around the edges.

"What's that?" Dante asked sounding a little disgusted himself.  
She kept the small remainder of her fish away from the vegetables and used one stick of potato to shove the crawly thing off the plate, but it ended up being cut into two. The shorter part also began moving. They will probably multiply if left alive for too long.  
"It's a worm," Vergil stated, gulping; he had never seen worms on plates his whole life, and this scene is close enough to make him sick.

It amazed the two how she could still eat the rest of the fish-meat calmly while something so considered 'gross' by girls stared at her. Her heart pounded, but she tried not to panic. She grabbed a different potato stick – one that has not yet touched the worm – and dipped it into hot-sauce. She always had hot chili sauce with meat or nachos.  
She then dabbed the sauce-wet potato stick on both worm-halves regardless of which was longer. After some unmeasured seconds, both strings lay still.  
Nay pushed the plate away from her. Dante stood up to take a closer look at the worm and see if it was truly dead.

"Well… I've got to go meet Nevan now… at the library…" The taken Sparda twin bowed awkwardly to mark his leave.  
Vergil had half the mind to throw the plate and let it fly like a saucer, but the need to keep his cool had him set it carefully on another table.

"Hello, you two," a familiar tingling melodic voice greeted them.  
"Hello, Nevan," Vergil replied, trying not to glance at the plate on which a worm died of cell-killing chili sauce.

"Dante just left earlier. He said he's going to meet you at the library," Nay told her.  
"You mean that he didn't know that I know there's a Northern Building entrance for the library?" She seemed genuinely taken aback.  
"No matter; even if he had left, you will do just as fine."

"What?" Vergil was confident she was talking to him and not Nay.  
Nevan suddenly took his hand in hers, pulling in a coercing way to make him stand up and follow her. "You are willing to spend time with me, aren't you? I mean, provided that you don't have anyone else to be with, or talk to, or…"  
"He's single," Nay yawned as she packs her hot-sauce bottle into her bag. Class may be resuming in fifteen minutes, but it is still less than half an hour.  
It was an abrupt thing for Nevan to have pulled him to her like that. There is something dangerous about her, and Vergil did not like it one bit. He still had to withdraw from her without hurting either Nevan or Dante, however.

"No, I'm not single. _We're_ not," he said, hoping he did not pull out his hand from hers too quickly.  
"What?" Nay was caught by surprise at this sudden act of defense.  
"I mean, she and I go out – stuff like that."  
"I see," Nevan stated, "then I should not be interfering in your business. There's no shame in being in a relationship, though," she added before leaving with a nod to Nay.

The two began walking off to class in silence. Nay did not display any expression about Vergil's suspicions and his sudden staging of his and her relationship towards each other. She still made a disturbing remark saying "I'll need more than a worm to get out of this mess."

* * *

Bonus: The Blame Train – Leader's Burden

According to John, Jimmy is the evil genius of their bunch, so Nay, Dante, Vergil, Agni and Rudra aimed to test it out.  
"Excuse me, Jim?" Dante asked the tall fellow.  
"Ah, you are the sir of sirs. What can I do for you, sir yes sir?" Jimmy asked in his casual, eccentric manner.  
"Is it true that you are the one among the five of you guys who leads the team?"  
"D'oh, that's ridiculous," Jimmy pronounced the last syllable like 'lose'. "If anyone is a secret leader of our team, it's Zack."

Agni found Zack browsing collections upon collections of notebooks, pens and mechanical pencils in the stationery store.  
When asked if he leads the five, he answered: "I'm sorry, but you got the wrong guy. I'm smart and clean and all, but if you seek the organizer among us, that shall be Brian."

Brian was at wit's end when deciding between buying a Coke and buying a grape soda. Now strawberry started to look good.  
"Hey, girlie. Don't spare me your sympathy," he said as a reminder that he had failed a paper badly and needed to repeat the subject.  
"We're in the same boat," she affirmed, taking an apple soda for a change. "I wish there were watermelon soda."  
His face split into a grin at that idea. "If you go in business, you'd start that, won't you?"  
"I don't have the kind of drive an entrepreneur does. What about you?"  
He looked at her blankly.  
"To put it plainly: are you the official leader of your gang?" she asked.  
"You guys see me as leader pretty easily, but I tell you, Matt is the guy we looked for when we're up for throwing parties."

So off goes Rudra to meet this Matt in person. He did not look the type of one who throws parties, but attitude has always saved his bones.  
"I'm here to ask if you are the clandestine ringleader among your friends."  
Matt looked to the right and left, and then rolled his eyes. "Power isn't necessary brains or brawn. Power sometimes comes when you got inside information on your rivals or enemies. That's what we got John for."  
"John is your ringleader, then?"  
"Go talk to him and you'll find out."

"Ouch!"  
Kester and John collided into each other for the reason that Kester had his nose in the short novel he had to read while John was distracted by a distant laughter.  
"I'm fine." "We both are." The two insisted so when Vergil was about to help them up.  
"Yo, Verge; how's reading the theme study book going?" Kester asked.  
"I've gone halfway through."  
While Kester left, John was to stay back awhile because the half-demon wanted to speak to him. "Do you recall our chats of evil?"  
"Yeah – I told you Jimmy's the evil mastermind among us and you don't have to ask me if I am because I'm too short to be leader."  
'Did he really know we had a joint plan to ask that in the first place?' Vergil wondered, smoothing back flyaway hair near his forehead.

* * *

The book mentioned was 'The Outsiders', and readers of the book would be familiar with it.  
As for Agni and Rudra's appearance here as human twin brothers… I needn't say much.


	15. The College Connection Lags

**Do My Calculations**

Capcom owns the Devil May Cry series and I haven't played the first two games.  
Niles belongs to the Nanny TV series.  
Whoever creates Aurebesh owns Aurebesh. I used it in writing once and when my English teacher noticed…  
To sum up, let's just say she thought I was an alien after that.

Entry Fifteen: The College Connection Lags

Their research paper for English has finally been submitted, although they would have to work on the presentation. New chapters in class are covered by now, but amidst the assignments and tests they were put through, some people still felt something was missing.

Nay rarely ever showed any outward emotion when she makes conversation, but her grim look that morning made him listen closely. "Have you ever felt like you're stuck in a time warp?"  
Knowing that she uses her vocabulary in line with how she feels things, he asked: "What do you mean by that?"  
"It's like time has come to a standstill – a way of not moving forward. We aren't going backwards either, but we stayed where we are in the passage of time."  
"The last time you actually tried writing a new novel plot was two months ago. Time _has_ moved on," he told her.  
"Maybe that's what's right for you. I must've been so sick of routine even if I couldn't do anything about it. Life must be interesting for you," she remarked.

"It isn't." Looking at the situation from a larger point of view, he realized how empty it felt. Stability and routine suddenly seemed disturbing.

She stored her seventh mechanical pencil in its place.  
"What brought you to think about this? People have been doing routine things day in and day out, and they still look pretty happy about their lives, apart from the tests they had to take. They usually don't have time to think about this," Vergil wondered.  
"Maybe that's because they spend a lot of time with their friends. We spend our time watching others go by. I mean, we do interact with them sometimes, but there's something about this distance that can be addictive. It's like you're a player in a real time strategy game where you can see all and can touch them all, but they can't touch you. I call it the Observer Complex."  
When he noticed her use of the word 'we' to address the both of them, she smoothed her face to the casual stony mask again.

They rose from the cafeteria table and got ready to go when they see Dante returning from the bathroom. "I swear I'm never going to drink orange juice first thing in the morning again," he exclaimed.  
"You say it, but you won't," Vergil coolly responded to that.  
"You stole that from Niles, didn't you?" Dante retaliated, heaving his bag from the tabletop.  
"This just shows that you are not really good at comebacks," he teased. It was enough that Dante has done better in the last Economics test; he had a right to be harsh with him.  
"I'm working on it," the red-garbed twin stated frankly. "Besides, the Monash University logo said 'Ancora Imparo'. They say it's Latin for 'I am still learning'."

At the present moment, Dante's good marks contrasted with his overall temperament. They have indeed seen less of Nevan lately, and if she had spent time with Dante at all after college hours, he would not have had that pining look on his face. If she skipped classes to spend private moments with him, he would have been missing from class, too.

"I know how you feel, Dante. There was one eye-magnet last semester – he's nowhere to be seen now. There's not anymore hint on where he is located or what he does," Nay stated.  
"It must feel great to have gotten over it," he said in a sarcastic tone. How he wished he can stop caring about everything and everyone at some point in time, then become cool and fearless. In some movies, the dynamic characters are always faced with some form of trauma or a significant physical, mental or emotional effect before being able to vanquish the antagonist. 'But that didn't mean I had to hurry up to that point, unless of course I'm desperate…'

Dante shook off the thought of acting on impulse. Such a drastic change might even kill him; if it did not, it will scar, or even worse, cripple him for life.

Trying not to let the gruff remark hurt her, Nay looked around as the three of them walk on, Vergil in the lead. She saw Matt ascending the steps from the Lower Ground level to say something briefly to John. The environmental sound of the common area was too cacophonic to allow her ears to eavesdrop on the short exchange. John soon nodded and began walking briskly past Nay, Dante and Vergil without even a hint of recognition. It bewildered the twins how he concentrated all his attention into reaching his destination, wherever it is. Nay took the lead and began to subtly follow the other short person.

"I wonder what made him hurry; it couldn't be the English research paper because they've submitted it earlier than we had," Vergil remarked, 'they' meaning the five students they are acquainted with.

On the second floor where most of their classes are held, they can see John striding towards the daydreaming Brian at the balcony. The latter woke up with a shock, but he recovered quickly, giving John time to show him something from the east wing corridor. At the very edge, it allows most students view of the campus residence, a road below and lots of trees. The three pretended to be checking for empty classes they can enter before going to the spot John and Brian had left.

"Hi, Dante." Brian's abrupt greeting caught him off-guard. He returned it awkwardly while John gave the hat-wearing student a look of urging.

"It's time to check out what they were eyeing," Nay whispered, stepping back from the door's small glass pane. They looked around for any of the five members before watching for suspicious things from the vantage point.

They can see Zack standing at a clearing of stone and leaves somewhere; it seems to be the top floor of a flight of steps. Matt crossed the road to the clearing with approximately five cans of soda in a plastic bag he held. Zack seemed to be chastising him for something. It could be that he was late, or he had bought the wrong combination of soda, or he had not used a cloth bag to contain those things instead.  
Jimmy's odd hair popped off the edge of one tree trunk, the rest of him hidden behind the tall, very leafy plant on the slope. He was probably asking if John and Brian are coming yet, but they did arrive. Newcomers and waiters alike followed Jimmy down the place where nobody clears up dead leaves and fallen branches.

"If they're holding a serious meeting, they could've chosen a more secret place," Vergil remarked.  
"If the Student Center staff had been friendlier, they would've booked a classroom for it," Dante fired back. The frown on his brother's face told him that his shot was driven home.  
"Wouldn't they have noticed our behavior in reaction to theirs? They should know that we can see where they went from here. Other students can see the stairs, too," Nay wondered.  
Then a security guard walked almost nonchalantly toward the stone floor from which he might be able to see something. Apparently what he witnessed was not very interesting – or maybe those in his sights were intimidating – so he walked off without a second look.

Near the unofficial nature sanctuary was a minor building formerly built as a monorail station for the college, but the project was abandoned years ago without a publicly stated reason. That far eastern part of the college is a ghost town now as far as they knew, but their knowledge of the present now differs from that of the past.  
"Should we check it out?" That came from Nay as more of a plea than a suggestion.  
Vergil considered the possibilities for this. Accounting class is just five minutes away, and if they are to investigate the area right after classes, that can take ten minutes. His father usually arrives in campus fifteen minutes after their classes end, but he did not want to take any risks in case they had to linger. Sparda is very particular when it comes to punctuality.  
"We can do it next week; it's not like that place will disappear by then," Dante said when the more studious brother made his thoughts known.

The three took their regular seats in the classroom, just a few tables off the middle of it.  
"There's that presentation we need to make for English; I don't think any of us would like to walk even half a block in this climate while wearing a stuffy cotton shirt," Nay pointed out.  
"If we wait until our days are all done, we'd be quite left behind in what the five are doing," Vergil added.  
Dante stretched his legs out under his table and nearly kicked the thankfully empty chair on the front row. "What do you propose we do, then?"  
"Tell you what; I had to go for guitar lessons tomorrow, but neither of my parents can drive me there. If you don't mind being stuck in a mall for about 45 minutes, maybe we can all pay this campus a visit on our way home," Nay said, her eyes fixated on the Cash Flow Statement.

"And to think life was too boring for you," Vergil muttered, wondering if she had forgotten about the incident that occurred in the first semester. She was also still unaware that he and Dante had access to her house without having to face the unhealthy elements of the outside world. It was a surprise to him that Dante still did not tell her about it; thank powers above if it had been self-discipline.

Thinking of the basement, he remembered what happened during the holidays when her family was away. He had seen more of those codes in her organizer than he had when he actually did open the book with his own hands, which was when the incident took place.

He learned the codes last year or so when some of their classmates asked what 'language' she was writing in. She wrote in English, but she also told them what the font is named. Of course, nobody was interested enough to pay attention and look for it online. He, being Vergil, thought it might come in handy in the future, and it definitely did.

By now he also knew that the plans in her head are more graphic than what she would let others read with a more 'human' font.  
Nobody normal realized she really _had_ plans to take over the world, but that was a story for another day.

* * *

Holidays are coming. I hope I'll discover something new.


	16. Of Guitar Lessons And Lightning Music

**Do ****My ****Calculations**

Thanks, readers! I thought I'd be dead by the 14th chap, but I was wrong. Thanks for keeping things alive!  
Sorry for the massive delay, but in this course, it's a make or it's a break. I heard MUFY is the hardest course in Sunway College, so, yeah.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so, except that 'lightning music' is the term I use in my other fantasy fiction to define heavy metal or some other hard stuff I listen to.

Entry Sixteen: Of Guitar Lessons and Lightning Music

After the guitar lesson, the twins faced another delay in the initial plan because Nay had to visit the record store and buy two albums not many people would expect her to even reach for on the shelves.  
"That reminds me – I've got to get a copy of –" but Vergil gave Dante such a look in the eyes that almost gave him physical discomfort.  
Dante finished the rest of the strawberry sundae he bought from an ice-cream parlor in the mall. Too many task-oriented people have forgotten the meaning of fun in the rush of the modern world.  
To his dismay, Vergil strapped himself in the driver's seat before Dante could cross the road to their parking row in the area. That would be the reality of rushing, in the case of nosy, curious people who needed to know what five ambitiously evil teenage boys are up to in an abandoned area of their college campus.

Nay observed the surroundings on the road from the back seat, as she always does, because someone else currently occupies the driver or passenger's seat. At times she felt the back-seater always feels what is real. She had glimpsed in the rear-view mirror how Dante's or Vergil's expression would look like when Mr. Sparda rounded a corner; they would seem to be containing themselves or wincing silently from the lurch. When Dante drove earlier, his twin took the front passenger's seat without further mention of reason, so their short neighbor stayed where she had been throughout this day's journey.  
When Dante took the wheel, his driving style had pretty much his father's touch, the precision of turning and accelerating in order to most importantly _avoid collision_.  
Now Vergil drives; his style is different, much safer and measured, in a way. He did avoid collision at all costs, but he is like a ticking clock waiting for the cuckoo to announce the hour of the day, compared to Dante, who seemed more like the conversation-maker. The twin in red would rather make judgments based on instinct than routine.

So she has yet to learn of this some time, probably near the end of this year because college was busy enough without her non-college books getting in the way. It is busy now, and this year felt longer than last.  
Vergil frowned at the darker-than-white skies; September shifts to October with welcome for a season with less wind and more rain. The welcome would have been his on another day; there is no way the three of them will go out in the rain to check on a place that hasn't been proven to be a secret base. His driving habit and the need to rush conflicted, but the former won.  
There weren't many students in campus on that day; most of the local students must have gone on their holidays as soon as their hours on Friday are over. 'If they're so enthusiastic, they were really well-prepared.'

The twins were not familiar with the Lower Ground area since they did not attend meetings held by a small music-producing group, but curiosity cannot kill the bespectacled cat leading the way. From the staircase where she had seen Matt come up, they walked along corridors which small-windowed doors had inclined planes to enable access for trolleys.  
She picked the paths in junctions that would lead them east and outside the building. They could have gotten there from outside, but it would draw eyes on a Saturday.

Once they reach the stone clearing, they descended the steps with caution. The security guard yesterday is not there, probably confident that the authorities would do something about the five boys soon.  
While most students of the university college don't bother much about their physical surroundings – apart from the fact that the campus is ten or so minutes from a colossal mall – inquisitiveness and networks brought the three here.

Their Accounting teacher of the previous semester has a saying: "Curiosity kills the cat, but satisfaction brings it back."  
Not as many people acknowledge the latter half of the proverb as they did the former.

The six-foot-high green-painted gate did not resemble a disused boundary for an abandoned place. Looking at the shiny surface of the padlock holding a length of wrist-thick chains joining the two halves of the gates solidly, someone or some people have clearly been maintaining this place.  
Vergil and Dante are left to wonder if Brian's group frequented hardware stores.

Nay, however, looked for any part of the gate she could use to get to the other side. Seeing nothing else that can aid the entry, she jumped and heaved herself over the sturdy gate, taking a bit longer to lower herself to the ground.  
"Dude, are you sure this is a good idea?" Dante asked her, oblivious to the term he had used.  
"It depends. Do you want to be bored for the rest of the semester?" she asked him back. Apparently distraction is all she looked for in the world of education.  
Vergil made his way above the gate easier than Nay did. "I'm sure you're able to think of something fun to do. Here; take the car key."

Dante frowned at the hand dangling the keys temptingly through the vertical bars of the gate. "_Oh_ no! There's _no_ way I'm passing this up!" The truth is that he dreaded what his brother would do to his neighbor in a secluded area like this. Curiosity can always be feigned when one finds himself in an almost ghostly town.

Vergil withdrew his hand and returned the key his front pocket. With a third person around, they seem to stick like superglue.

They hardly waited for him; Nay walked immediately to the biggest structure in the gated area, a house made of steel support beams, wire-cage walls and a roof she guessed to be made of zinc. The concrete foundation extended only to low walls outlining the structure's base for three feet's height. The front door is another piece of metal frame lined with gridded wires. The bolt was padlocked to make sure nobody can enter the place and raid its storage of…  
"Art supplies," she blurted out loud.

Dante retreated from a smaller zinc-and-cage shed nearby. "What is it?"  
"I saw those plastic gray chairs from upstairs, but there are wooden rulers poking out of those yellow plastic bags."  
"That reminds me," Vergil responded, taking her earlier place. "I took a brochure for the School of Art and Design out of boredom, and I remembered seeing that art gallery beneath the abandoned station. I hadn't recycled the brochure yet, but the college has more of those where they came from." He stepped away from the cage-door.  
"Well, that makes sense for people who maintain this place, but what would our Fab Five be up to?" Dante wondered, looking around to check for evidence of the boys being there.

There was a sink next to the door, but being short, Nay saw that under the counter supporting it lay a blue pencil case; it was a little too narrow, but it still functioned as one. "What art student or teacher would have lost this here?" she joked to lighten the situation despite knowing she will fail to do so.  
The twins watched closely as she unzipped it to reveal its contents. There were pens with inks of unconventional colors like green, purple and orange. There were pieces of folded paper in there as well; most of them are formerly blank while some are ruled. After the occasional glances to check that no guards noticed their intrusion, the twins began unfolding the papers to read their contents.

Dante was the first to chuckle. "Listen to this: _The night was dark as the inspector drove downtown. The rainwater pounded on the windshield and windows. The crook resting at the backseat will trouble him no longer now that he will comply with the rules of being a snitch. The grinning man is of no concern to him at the moment. All he looked forward to now is to meet her…_" He revealed his reason to laugh: attached to the piece is a page of doodles. A spiky-haired man is drawn wearing a trench coat. The so-said grinning man sat wearing a coat, too, but unbuttoned to let his front upper body show. The female character was not fully drawn, but there is a sketch of a bespectacled girl with an arrow pointing at her linked to the word 'Weirdo!'

"I don't know whether to laugh or shoot this potential author," Nay stated.  
"Oh, but you're about to smile!" The half-demon in red pointed out.

Some of the papers were scrap papers from Mathematics A. It might be safe to assume that the pencil case belonged to Matt or Brian. Other sketches showed music notes and rough lyrics for a medieval setting. One of them was entitled 'Lightning Music'.  
"Whoever owned this, I hope they listened to Metallica," she said optimistically.

Vergil only half-listened to them when he found a small envelope that seemed to hold a key in place. He left the two – with Nay still holding the narrow case and Dante checking the papers – and walked cautiously around the area to look for keyholes. It could be curiosity taking control of his subconscious, but when he found a mausoleum-like edifice behind the cage-house, he unthinkingly inserted the key there.  
It fit.  
But it threw him backwards – his back hit the vertical bars of the green gates. "Vergil!" Mingled voices called for him. Those gates could leave marks on his back, but they won't last.  
"What did you do?" Dante asked at the speed of sound.  
It took Vergil a moment of groaning and standing back up properly for him to answer. "The case had a key in an envelope; for some reason, I knew it had a place in this perimeter."  
"Weird," Nay exclaimed at length.

All of them hid behind the smaller shed when Dante pointed briefly at the security guard. They need a plan in case someone is to extract some art supplies from the cage-house.  
'Slip out from the back of the shed and hide among the trees. We'll get out when those people are gone,' Vergil sent his thoughts to the two.  
It came as a shock to Nay; it'd been so long since he used the mind-talk.

She still needed help from neither twin to jump over the gates another time. The earth outside the gated area is steeply uneven, covered by fallen leaves and twigs, but they were used to crossing undeveloped areas in foreign suburbs, such as those of Eva's relatives, or in Nay's case, her own. They used a different route around the campus building to make it look normal before they get back to their car.

* * *

Describing the mysterious house is a challenge as I've never really entered the place. Plus, I've delayed it for some months, I suppose, until I finished it tonight in a hurry.  
More to come hopefully after the exams! I've got a paper tomorrow!


	17. ProgramHeld Distractions

**Do My Calculations**

This chapter still took place in early October or something, probably until mid-October. I didn't have the time to write then, so now is the time for the college chronicles to continue.  
I own Kester, and just for the record, he is _not_ Jester. I figured out Kest _way_ before I started playing DMC3.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so.

Entry Seventeen: Program-Held Events / Distractions

Each household has spent most of that week-long holiday at open-house events where their relatives live.  
But the twins aren't counting on celebrating for seven whole days. They would rather spend some blissful time in their basement practicing on targets with Ebony and Ivory, or playing foosball or some other game.

When nearly all good times come to an end, the thought of college reminded them that they had to talk to Brian and his group about the place Nay first coded as 'Sanctuary'. Still, busy times are ahead with the MUFY Sharity Carnival for one. Yes, they made a portmanteau of 'share' and 'charity' to distinguish this occasion from the other events different programs might have held.

On the 7th of October, the regular lesson-periods were shortened from 75 to 45 minutes to make time for the Carnival, which the program directors announced would start at 12:30pm and last for about three hours. Then again, students not interested in this are allowed to go home early _and_ without the lecturers' permission.  
The rush that lasted for less than an hour tampered with the minds of many students. In some of the subject lessons, though, some students can still chance a chat or two. It is also made easier by the fact that mind-contact can exist amongst them.

'Here's a plan: Once we finish with Accounting, we go and talk to the guys _immediately_,' Vergil informed near the end of the third period.  
'We also have to return their little blue pencil case. From their looks back in our first class, they look like they've lost something'  
'Ooh! Do I know what it is?'  
'No, Dante,' he told his twin in a sharp mental voice that revealed traces of amusement.

'How's it going with Agni and Rudra, Nay?' Dante asked, knowing that she goes to Globalization class with them.  
'They were known to be absent from class on some days, but they're not _so_ dim. They're smart enough to attend yesterday,' she responded.

When time came for Accounting, they found that their teacher is the one absent. A student left in charge has to distribute some question papers for his classmates to answer. To the three's luck, that student is Brian.  
"Why the teacher picked _me_ to do this, I don't even know; I'm not even responsible enough to do this work myself," he remarked to his friends.  
"Heck, you're not responsible enough to pick this up," Dante told him when he came by, revealing the blue case found at the Sanctuary.  
Brian left the rest of the stack to the man's twin and took the artifact in his hand to examine it. "Thanks, dude, you have no idea how important this thing is to my buddies and I. We'll talk at the Sharity Carnival."  
"Um, Brian –"  
"Look out for me at the dunking stalls. I'm going to be one of the dummies, whatever they call them."  
It took them a while to comprehend his fast speech. Vergil shook his head, stood up and went to deliver the question papers to those who still didn't have them.

They were lucky that the five didn't sit far from them during this lesson because it allowed eavesdroppers to hear that they were planning on entering the Talent Quest which would be held next week.  
"The audition period might've been over," Zack told Brian.  
"Besides, the audio system at the Multi-Purpose Hall sucked. Sunway's entire audio system sucked," John added.  
"I'd hate to crash down on our path to fame, but we can't let inconveniences like these to disturb our groove," Matt said in a doubtful voice.  
"You're right. After all, talent shit like this is short-term. If we wanted to be a real band, we've got to have some long-term investment or something," Brian agreed with them.  
Jimmy took little or no part in that conversation. He was busily moaning over the excessively easy questions the paper posed him. "When are they going to teach us anything more difficult than accrued and prepaid double-entries? And as if differentiating between cash and accruals accounting is hard," he pondered.  
The rest didn't quite want to answer that because they didn't quite share his views on how the questions were graded.

Once Accounting period ended, though, the five were the ones who got off their seats right away to get out of class. "Lunchie!" Jimmy growled, probably because his stomach also did.

"We're never going to get them to talk today," Dante said to his twin.  
"Let them go; they can only avoid us for so long," Vergil replied.  
"Judging by where they stand, we can also only be interested in them for so long," Nay interjected.

Both of them looked at her oddly. "I'm not suggesting anything," she added to avoid dirty suspicions.

* * *

Having to look for people who looked like former juvenile delinquents was hard enough to do while avoiding suspicion. Contrary to what was stated on the Sharity flier given to the students, there really weren't any live musical performances, even by acoustic guitarists. Knowing that the five are serious-to-death musicians, they know how _not_ to look for them now.

It was still easy to detect Jimmy's height and odd hairstyle as he stands out of the crowd, waving a bunch of tickets valued at RM10 specifically for the Carnival. He looked too busy handling other students purchasing the money-tickets to deal with interrogations the twins and Nay would have put him through.

"So much for the Economics trial paper being on this Saturday. I guess we'd better enjoy this festival while we can," Nay told the two.  
"Yeah," Dante spoke to fill the gap before they spot Kester's blonde locks. The studious one appeared to be crouching before a basin full of small fish. That small space near the pillar appeared to be a game stall where students take chances to catch fish using what the stall organizers set for them. The tool would be a hand-held plastic frame lined with thin paper to raise the level of difficulty with which people could have used to just net them in.

Kester looked up blankly when he spotted the pair of shoes he recognized: Dante's.

"Hey guys," he greeted them.  
"There are guppies in there! Look at their color!" Nay stopped herself before rambling any further.  
"How hard is it to catch stuff without limbs that move in the water?" Vergil poked.  
"Well, this is one so-called game that requires my patience, which I have barely enough of to get through Advanced Math. This carnival is a cry for failure," he complained when the paper tore from the force of one reddish-orange fish he somehow managed to corner in the frame of the plastic handle-and-hoop.  
"I'm willing to take my chances. Don't wait up," Nay said to them, pulling out her money-tickets to participate in the game.

Kester turned to those he knew as her closest classmates. "She's really obsessed with fish, isn't she?"  
"She doesn't talk much about it with us," Vergil replied in a tone that he hoped revealed nothing.  
Dante's eyes brightened over one of the stalls he saw near another pillar. "Ooh, a dart stand!"  
"Hey!" Vergil followed close behind him; they found a dart set in the games-drawer in the basement. It's about time that all those hours of practice make their worth known.

The boys had to line up behind a number of taller people who took interest in the game as well. 'Patience, man…' Vergil repeated a mantra in his head so he wouldn't lose his place in the line. Curiosity jabbed at him to see whether the distance between thrower and board is farther than it was set at home.  
"That means I'm up and away," Kester sighed. "I'm leaving this circle of senseless noise. Goodbye."  
Dante nodded without looking at the nerd, excitedly waiting for his turn.

Meanwhile, Nay found out the hard way that she wasn't patient enough to bear the organizers' unfair setting of this pointless game. She spoke no words, though inwardly she wondered if nobody can catch those fish and what the students would do if there are many fish left uncaught in the basin.

She looked around to see that Kester had already disappeared, and that her neighbors are seriously having fun scoring tops in darts and taking the last of the grand prizes. 'They're always better at everything, especially choosing games and the right time to play them,' she guessed, walking away.  
Nay remembered what Brian said about being at the dunking stalls, but apart from him and Jimmy, none of the three remainders are in her sight that day. She thought of going down to the Sanctuary, but on her way there she passed the Lower Ground area where the dunking stalls are set up.

Brian looked different without his hat, but his shoulder-length black hair and high cheekbones still distinguished him from the crowd, especially when he was wearing a white singlet and a pair of swimming trunks. Not far away stood Zack; he gave his friend an almost evil look that says 'I'm going to enjoy doing this to you. Others, too, but especially you.'

Oblivious to this, the longer-haired man waved at the crowd when he sat at the edge of the plank, which is part of the dunking mechanism that would send him into a clear tank of chlorinated water if the player hit the target strongly and accurately enough. When he sighted Nay, he sported a friendly smile, indicating that he wanted her to participate in his humiliation.

'Well, sorry, but no,' she thought, waiting for him to shift his attention to the first person to throw the tennis ball at the fist-sized target. He seemed glad that the edge of the dunking plank had padding or else he would regret ever volunteering for charity. Once everybody cheered for the splashing water, Nay bolted for the eastern exit of the Lower Ground area. Now that they have their pencil case of secrets back, she wouldn't be able to attempt to unlock that mausoleum like Vergil did; not that she wanted to be hurled like that, anyway.

Nay was nowhere in sight by the time they are done with the Carnival.  
Dante was losing his edge. "What are we going to do? If Dad pulls over at the foyer-road and asks us where she is, how should we tell him?"  
"Relax, brother. This rarely ever happens to us, which perfectly explains your panic," Vergil told him, sending a text message to their neighbor asking where she is. Her reply revealed that she was keeping an eye on the Sanctuary again. "Does she always have to take these things seriously?" he sighed.

Sparda has been driving more conservatively ever since the petrol price rose in the country, which meant they had slightly more time to wait for both Nay and their father to arrive.  
'How do you usually kill ten minutes without much to talk about?'  
'I don't talk.'  
Dante shrugged and reluctantly took out some reference papers for Economics.

* * *

I have a word limit and the propensity to type a lot. Bear with the ever-expanding continuation also known as fillers.


	18. Hand Aide

**Do My Calculations**

The Trial Exam venue confusion was supposed to be mentioned in the last chapter, but I was afraid if I typed too much for a chap.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so.

Entry Eighteen: Hand Aide

Punctuality is an important trait in employees, especially if they are out to impress their bosses.  
Of course, that is what most adults tell their children who are still studying in institutes that only teach them to listen to teachers and obey orders.

On Saturday morning, however, there was evidently some breakdown in communication between the teaching staff and the Maintenance Department, or whatever they are called, because they provided the wrong arrangement of rooms for the Economics students to take their test in.

Those who study last-minute peered cautiously between the pages of their books and their surroundings, just to check if they had to move anywhere.  
Dante is one of them, relying on his brother and Nay – no, just his brother. It appears she hadn't studied for this either.

Vergil looked over his shoulder sometimes to check that the two are still following him when their teacher announced that the trial paper will take place at the South building.  
So much for going all the way to the 3rd floor in the North building.  
At least most of the students knew even before they are told that there is a rooftop walkway on the 4th floor that allowed them to walk south without the stairway fuss. The library wouldn't let them through, even if it was open.

* * *

The paper ended later than the predicted time they used to inform Sparda when he asked what would be a good time for him to fetch them from college.  
They dreaded the sense of delay that would subconsciously tell the millennia-old demon in human figure to drive dangerously fast.

"Dudes, help me out here!"

The scream drew public eyes to Jimmy, who hung by the grip of his hands from the corridor-railing on the 1st floor above the college foyer.  
Jaws were unhinged at this awkward scene. As for Matt, John and Brian, their jaws dropped to make way for lots of laughter. A few steps away, Zack was trying hard not to laugh, but an uncontrollable grin showed anyway.

"Jim, you're a tall man! You can just drop like a cat!" John teased.  
"Not without the mattress they use for protection when rock-climbing indoors!" Jimmy screamed his head off, his legs occasionally swinging back and forth.  
"You shouldn't have drunk too much orange juice this morning, man," Matt joked.  
"Well, blame me for being too excited about the trial exam becoming a thing of the past!"

Dante nearly yelped when he realized a tall figure was standing behind him between his right shoulder and Vergil's left while watching the unusual spectacle.  
"How long can he hold on there for?" Sparda asked with amusement.  
"That will depend on how much he weights, and his height is a good indicator of that," the older son replied.  
"He should be glad he's got hand- and arm-muscles from all that drumming," Nay remarked.

The twin sons made way for their father to advance and let the crazy student know someone will make his landing less life-threatening.  
Sparda rolled up his left shirtsleeve and held out his upper forearm as if to let a trained bird perch there.  
"Let go of the railings and lean back," Sparda said clearly. "You asked to be the damsel in distress," he poked in a lower voice.

Hearing those sharp instructions, Jimmy loosened his grips and let his shoe-soles land on the unknown demon's forearm, but Sparda was quick to make his steps and safeguard the young adult's fall. The resulting position is one that can be seen when a hero carries someone in his arms out of danger's way, with Jimmy's knees on his left hand and his shoulders on his right.

"I am _so_ ready to get off now, but thank you," Jimmy said once the twins' father lowered him to the floor.  
"Just remember that I know how hesitative people are when it comes to helping out those in peril," Sparda said loudly as if to teach the public a lesson on how to prevent the Genovese effect from occurring.  
The tall student nodded before chasing after his friends for the non-help he got from them earlier.

The father's eyebrows are raised when his younger son came forth to face him. "Dad, you didn't really have to do that. We were thinking of rescuing him ourselves."  
"You know what; it still probably won't matter, one way or the other. At least he's still alive after we saved him," he remarked, following them to the car he drives.  
It was safe to say that with the distraction in mind, he didn't drive as dangerously as he normally does. If he paid attention to the delay, they surely would have wrecked some cars by now, even if they came out without a scratch, which they usually did.

* * *

On the Monday after, Vergil was glad to see that the remnants of chaos littered from the incident last week are close to being completely cleaned up. Whether or not the group of boys noticed, Jimmy always set a certain distance from the four guys now.  
He was also quick to notice platinum-haired people moving in his direction or passing not so far away. He even spared the twins a wave of the hand, although another person in his gang is eyeing someone else.

However, a few friends from Globalization class needed her help in a variety of topics that they thought they would be tested on if they had trial papers to do. Girls often look to other girls for help in this pre-U program, but two boys seem to have lost hope in their own circle of not-so-close friends.  
"Just when I thought this subject is a new thing to you; now you're part of the high-scorers," Dante observed.  
Vergil did not bother to drag him along when he left for the unoccupied table a short distance away. He pretended to be nonchalant about his business – reading a book of foregone evil-plan conclusions – while keeping an eye on the movement of Brian's gang, Nay's unofficial study group and the vicinity in general.

His watch on the public was cut short when light treads brought Jimmy to sit at the table next to him. He looked awkward when it comes to greeting the direct relative of his rescuer the other day, as if greeting someone wasn't a ritual to him before this.  
"Uh… hey."  
"Hello," Vergil replied smoothly. Dante had gone to the boys' table to take Jimmy's former seat.  
"I… um… don't know if that one thank you was enough."  
"Don't mention it."  
"Well, there's more to talk about than that. I'm weird and I know it; I have a sense – no, a code of honor."  
"Honor?"  
"When you save someone, they're bound to feel like they owe you if they have a conscience. When someone kills the person you love, you'll feel like the person owes you a life or something."  
"That's interesting to know," Vergil remarked, a little distracted. Those words drove him to think about his life and Dante's. Saving can be such an umbrella term…

"Oh, and I think there's something else I should let you know," Jimmy said as if a thought had slashed his mind _hard_.  
"What is it?"  
"You might not believe this in case I'm propagating the elements of a typical fictional story, but I'm the leader of a guardian squad."  
Vergil paused. "I believe you."  
"You do? Wow; that was quick."  
The half-demon pondered whether he should tell Jimmy what John revealed to them last semester, that the tall chap is the evil mastermind. Maybe he should take advantage of this innocent-seeming man's trust at the moment.  
"I know. I heard that you're the plot-smart person in your team."  
"What?" Jimmy was shocked. "Who told you that? Brian? I knew he's been talking a bit funnier than usual lately."  
"Just one of your guys," Vergil said, not wanting to be specific.  
"Alright," he responded grudgingly; he just made a mental note to give that mole a spoonful of 'Code of Conduct'.  
"What do you guard, exactly?" Vergil asked. This one's words were different from the hat-wearing one, who seems to lean farther to the evil side of the spectrum.  
"Oh, we try to do good here and there, but we tend to be selective. There's something that I bet the guys don't want me to mention, though…"

"Hey Jimmy, the guys are calling you," Dante said from behind him; the sudden spoken notification almost made the crazy man jump or fall off his seat.  
"Before I leave, I'd like to let you guys in on what we're up to," Jimmy said after his heartbeat rate returned to normal. "If you remembered that spooky redhead that was part of the July Intake this year that we hardly see nowadays…"  
"Jim, man, I knew you were scarred that day, but I didn't think you'd already look for new underlings," Brian told him, a hand on his shoulder.

The two argued their way back to the other three while Dante tried to make sense of what Jimmy had tried to say earlier.  
"Verge, I think he was talking about Nevan," he exclaimed.  
"You don't say," Vergil said just to fill the gap, contemplating the tall teen's choice of words: 'spooky redhead'.  
Agni and Rudra were the last to keep Nay waiting at the table, clarifying further definitions of certain terms relating to economic globalization.

"The next test, if there's any at all, isn't going to kill you. I only know that I'd be dead for the Mathematics final paper," she stated.  
"Well, with that level of confidence, we know we're toast, too," Rudra responded, but he seemed less worried than before the random revision.  
"Good luck on what you think you'd die doing," Agni joked as he walks in the same direction as his closest friend.  
"You, too. Remember: what don't kill you make you more strong," Nay quoted the lyric.

"Unfortunately, that's not my favorite song in the album," Vergil commented.  
"I thought I saw Jimmy come over and talk to you. It has something to do with last Saturday, right?"  
"Yes," he began, but Dante also cut in to say: "He was about to talk of Nevan until Brian pulled him in for questioning."  
It was not an awkward look that resulted on Nay's face, however. "Do you think they know what happened to her?"  
"It must be a secret, or they wouldn't have told us. They didn't tell the authorities, from the looks of it," he spoke hurriedly.  
"_Jimmy_ wanted to tell us because he thinks he owes us something," Vergil pointed out.

"Guys, I might've forgotten to mention this, but the last time I went to the Sanctuary solo, which was on last Friday, I saw that the mausoleum was open, and there were purple marks inside it. I didn't want to distract us from the Econ trials," Nay gave the alibi before they demanded it.  
"I appreciate your concern, but does that mean _you_ were distracted during the Econ trial paper as well?"  
"Verge, this could be something serious! There is a purplish menace out there that might probably be able to eat three people whole and demolish the college architecture!"  
Both Nay and Vergil listened, but at the same time stared oddly at him.  
"Alright, just because the technical equipment sucked, it doesn't mean the building structure does, too."  
"It's still a bad thing we didn't have connections outside of this pre-U program. I mean, it must be fairly human-sized, but I don't know if it flies or turns invisible or anything," Nay stated.  
"And nobody would believe us anyway," Vergil added.  
"Plus, it's not like we want others to discover our very interesting extra-curricular activities," Dante continued.

"Given this situation, I guess we'll have to stick to the main objective of staying in college: survive."

* * *

Here I was, thinking of how I can steer a plot back to its course, and all of a sudden, along came Sparda!  
Maybe I owe it to jelly-Arkham for crying that name out loud and making me think of The Dad more than necessary.


	19. Almost Friendly Afternoon

**Do My Calculations**

The current holidays meant I'm at risk of lacking inspiration, but I fear not, for I've started playing DMC2. Yes, the store is out of stock for the first game, so I'll have to deal with Dante being _much_ older.  
I don't own Dante, Vergil, Sparda, Agni, Rudra, Nevan or even the five boys. They're borrowed. I only own Nay and Kester.

Entry Nineteen: Almost-Friendly Afternoon

"Nay, take those headphones off."  
"We can't miss out on information we can overhear when you're off listening to Pantera."  
"So what? If the purple thing would attack me, I'd like a little blood rush first, and if I die, at least I listen to songs I'm comfortable with."  
Both platinum-haired boys stared at her. At least she listened to them, too.  
"I'm just upset that people's blood will be on my hands because I didn't make it known," she told them.  
"Nobody in college knew about it. Nobody could've done anything to make a difference," Vergil pointed out. The Sanctuary secret was such that apparently not even their father knew about it.

When he dropped the kids off at the foyer, sporting his good-luck smile from the driver's seat, did he know how much luck they need now more than ever?

At the start of lunch hour, Matt and Brian were discussing something about studying just to pass what subjects they previously failed at. Zack extended a voluntary hand of help to them. John looked uneasy, which could be explained by Jimmy's absence or a worry relating to the Sanctuary that the other three had no time to express.  
"If Jimmy feels like he owes you, it's a good time for us to ask him more about it since they can't seem to find him," Dante whispered to his accomplices.  
"If they can't find him, how can we, may I ask?" the more mature twin demanded.  
"The Jimmy does not let himself be found unless he chooses to, but the Jimmy will find you first."  
"You're making this up as you go along, aren't you?"

Nay only half-listened to this part-conversation part-argument until she noticed that the four leftovers had been following the three of them since the 1:30pm class ended.  
"Hey," Brian called out softly, as if to address one person rather than the whole group. "You guys having lunch anywhere particular today?"  
"We're going to the college cafeteria to eat the usual bland stuff. Are you?" Vergil asked him.  
"Hell, no – we're going out the back gate to the commerce corner, you know, where the restaurants serve _real food_."  
"Do you mean that you've never gone beyond college grounds before in between hours?" John asked the twins and neighbor in shock.  
"Most of the time we're afraid we didn't have the time to march back and forth," Dante replied.

"Who can blame you when it's the education system that sucks?" Matt hoped nobody in the foyer heard his short outburst.  
"Come on, guys, there's no way you're eating cheap cafeteria junk this afternoon. There's a wide range of restaurants you can find in the corner," Zack said invitingly.  
"Who's going to pick today? Nay, how about you? Would you rather dine at the Pink House, the Orange, the Yellow or the Rock Café?" Brian asked.

How glad she was that the hat-wearer is the only one with his eyes on her now. Dante and Vergil were busy scanning the features of all four in case they were up to something that takes advantage of their not-well-known half-demon heritage.  
"Hold up; do we have the right to remain suspicious here?" Nay questioned in response.  
"Well, why should you be? We're only taking you out now so we all can take our minds off the impending stress placed by the exam countdown," Brian stated. He did remember to bring everyone into the picture.

"If you happened to prove yourself right, you'd never have called yourself evil," Vergil muttered under his breath.  
"And you could've showed up when we're supposed to play foosball the last time the guys made the appointment," Dante growled.

"If you have a complaint about the lack of time given to you, you can lodge it at the office," Zack told them, obviously not possessing their enhanced senses of hearing.  
"Which restaurant would Jimmy normally pick?" Nay asked when they cross the boundary separating safe old college-building from the big bad streets.  
"Oh, he'd always go to the Pink House – it has something to do with what he said about pink being the new black…"  
"The food there's expensive and the waiters are rude," John cut in the middle of Brian's rambling.  
Nay looked for the one eatery in his list that seemed to stand out. "Is the Rock Café good?"  
"The menu is versatile. They have virtually everything you can think of eating in this country," Matt answered right away.

She turned to her next-door neighbors with a pleading look on her face.  
'Do we really have to waste our time and money hanging out with these freaks?' Vergil questioned through his mind, careful not to let anyone but Dante in to listen.  
'You can stay back and look for Jimmy if you want, but that'd be hard. Meanwhile, I might be able to chat Brian up a bit, you know…'  
'You're trying to get to his good side,' Dante realized, nodding at her. To the other boys he seemed to confirm that she can go, and probably so could he.  
"I'll be sticking around," Vergil told them.  
"You do mean _we_, don't you?" Dante asked him.

Vergil turned to look at his brother.  
"I'm not going to stay back and resort to routine; I want some real food for a change," Dante stated.  
"Y'know, the only things that actually separate you from us now is that you've got a twin and that you got white – I mean, _platinum blonde_ hair," Matt told the warmer-seeming of the two.

"Are the rest of you coming? Make up your mind!" Brian sounded annoyed at their delay.  
"So much for taking our minds off some impending stress," Dante said to Vergil and the other three behind them; Brian and Nay were walking as fast as usual, if not faster.

* * *

The open-air restaurant is filled with smoke from customers of appropriate ages and the chatter of commoners and college students alike.

However, conversation amongst the extended group did not spark until they paid for their meal and brought them to their table.  
"I don't want anyone to get all jumped up about the exams yet – at least not here – but remind me, which question d'you think would appear for the theme studies question in the exam?" John asked.  
"To make it safe, let's assume every question we ever studied will come up," Dante joked.  
"That wouldn't happen. They only instructed us to pick one of two questions and elaborate from there," Vergil pointed out.  
"I remembered that Jimmy was the top-scorer of your group. Is there no way you can ask him?" Nay wondered.

Spoons, forks and knives clattered against plates and bowls, and the occasional stirrer made gentle sounds against glasses of tea or pulpy juice. While the people went on with their own conversations, this table of seven has gone silent.  
It made Dante feel uncomfortable.  
Vergil could see that Brian pretended to look nonchalant about it, fidgeting with his tablespoon even if he finished the rice. He was quick to take his seat next to Nay's earlier, but at the long rectangular table, Vergil sits on the other chair next to hers.

"Actually, we were wondering if you know where he is now. We've learned our lessons, and agreed not to bring up the joke the next time we see him," he spoke. The face he sports now tells them he meant business and would take no nonsense from them.  
"We don't even have his mobile number. When we did our assignments, we usually dealt with you as a group, not him alone," Dante responded.  
Brian sighed in disappointment. Matt, Zack and John glanced at each other as if they had a soldier-like form of telepathy.

"Could you tell us what you know about the Sanctuary?" Nay posed the question at last.  
The hat-wearing student looked blankly at her.  
"We saw you going to the gated place far east within the college grounds. We also kind of went there and – tried to figure out exactly what you're doing. I mean, we know that the Student Services Department is really stiff and inconsiderate to students who just want to hang around with a group of like-minded people."  
"I've known this since you returned the blue pencil case to us. We hoped against hope that we didn't leave any more in the case than the fiction Jimmy wrote and the sketches Zack drew," Brian confessed.  
"Then why didn't you talk about it with us earlier?" Vergil demanded.  
Dante concurred at this point. "Yeah – you kept steering off-topic every time I discreetly start talking about the Sanctuary."

Brian looked to the others for an answer to this.  
"Well, Nay wasn't with you," John shot up, but then Brian looked as if he wanted to slap someone, including himself.  
"Nay wasn't with me when Jimmy wanted to talk to me about being the 'leader of a guardian squad'. Dante wasn't there either," Vergil countered.  
"He's a loner; we could use one of those in our group. With the way they're always watching things, it's easy for them to tell what happens," Zack explained.

Dante could be seen watching his soon-to-be-empty glass of Coke that used to have a scoop of ice cream on its surface. He decided he has waited long enough until he asks the question.  
"Jimmy wanted to tell us about something you guys were up to. He was going to talk about Nevan until _you_ called him away," he said to Brian's face. "So can you tell us what you were doing with her already?"

John looked around to check if anyone heard the sudden rise in the conversation level. A few sensitive-eared people turned their heads, but they got back to their own chats soon enough.  
"We can't talk about this in a place where anybody could be eavesdropping. This place is too loud for us all to hear whispers anyway, so once we talk, the cat is out of the bag," Zack told them.  
"Here's the thing: we paid for our food as soon as we got them, and now we've all finished them. Let's go back," Brian said.

For a moment, the twins almost suspected that he would extend a hand to Nay, but she appeared not to have noticed.

* * *

The tall, eccentric teenager paid for the green apple at the cafeteria counter and walked away with it literally. He needed no knife to peel the poison-coated skin; if his neatly-trimmed fingernails failed, he could always use the steel ruler in his pencil case. He hardly ever carries his textbooks to college as he can borrow them from his friends. As a result, his college-bag is almost always light, the exception applying only if he had to help keep someone else's laptop in there.

He chuckled to himself at the memory of how he did it; hiding under a cap and a pair of sunglasses – both of them borrowed from Matt – nobody recognized him in the loud cafeteria. He must remember to return them afterwards, whether or not he liked it.

As he leaves the high-activity area – as if eating involved a lot of energy – he switched his phone ringer from Silent mode back to Soft. That was the problem with being so damn unique even amongst his cavalier friends; if they heard his ring tone, they would know it was his right away.

Lower Ground might be the way to go, but those lab people might see this stranger down there too frequently. There is another route almost directly to the east road from the cafeteria. He finished more than half of the sour apple when he arrived at the top of the stairs.  
He stood still to observe the vicinity. He looked around to check if anyone was following him.  
'So far, so good,' he thought, cherishing the loneliness.  
The last of the apple is in his mouth being chewed when he vaulted easily over the chained green gate. The twins and their weirdo neighbor already recovered the pencil case that stores some of their side projects. He walked around in a drunkenly manner; this is when he felt at his best.

He abruptly ended his tomfoolery when he saw that the stone mausoleum was open.  
'How come nobody told me about this?'  
A second voice popped up in his head to piss his own off.  
'_Duh_, you hadn't communicated with them since yesterday. They couldn't meet here without you. That's why they went out for lunch with the weirdoes.'

He started to stomp in frustration over his reluctance to communicate with his companions.  
'What the censor do I do now?' his original voice wondered.

A shorter but somewhat strong figure grabbed him from behind. One hand gagged his mouth while the other held his body tightly.  
'What happened to my legs? Move, you sticks, _move_!' he commanded in vain.

Soon he was allowed to see that the stranger wore a hooded robe, but nothing much under that. He could see the stranger is female.  
"My, oh my, what a body you have!"  
His mistake was to open his mouth and scream in shock. He recognized the voice; he should have expected the worst to happen to him.  
There are just some things he didn't take precautions for.


	20. She Bloody Returns

**Do My Calculations**

I am smack in the middle of starting up new fan-fiction. I actually completed a couple of chapters in one day, but I have to wake up early in the morning to use the Internet. Only one computer makes it there in this house now, and that comp is shared.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so.

Entry Twenty: She Bloody Returns

The absence of an unreasonably tall member made the group appear marred.  
"This is getting out of hand," Matt exclaimed.  
"He's definitely not answering our calls," Zack said, putting his mobile phone away.  
"Why didn't I think of this right before the hours end yesterday?" Brian seemed to be talking to himself.  
"We'd like to hear that unspoken plan," John said, rolling his eyes.  
"I – _we_ should've given them Jimmy's number; maybe he would've taken calls from other mobile phone users."

"You know we could've used the public phones on the west side of the foyer," Zack pointed out.  
"Argument #1: Those things operate on coins. Argument #2: Jimmy avoids calls coming from non-mobile phones by instinct," Brian countered. "I could have written all this into an essay and not made a single point."  
If he were a robot, Matt would have suspected that somebody put his batteries on backwards last night.

The other side effect to the malfunction is that he seems to have stepped out from his lazy shell. He had a spring in his step this morning, but John concluded that something was wrong with him. If Jimmy were here, he might be able to analyze the situation by a glance.

Brian tried his best to smile when he entered the classroom where the subject Economics is being held, but the attempt died when he saw what he could call a nightmare hanging close to his companions of the previous day.  
Lesson-periods have not yet begun, which explains her appearance there.  
"Look who's here," Nay said, unsure of to whom she was speaking.  
"Nevan is back! I heard all about it from her: she was called home because her granddad died and she had to be there for the funeral. Then, an accident happened involving her mother and late-night driving. She has to take care of her younger siblings for the month and a week. Of course, she sent an official letter to the Program Director concerning this, so whatever tests she missed, she can still take them in her free time," Dante told the story as he interpreted it.  
"Well, there's no need for me to say anything more since he's already done that," the redhead spoke in her as-usual melodic voice.

Nay could see Brian nodding and probably trying hard to smile.  
"Alright – welcome back." If he was pale and sweating, the fluorescent lights and air-conditioner would not let him show it.

"I don't have lessons during the first period of the day, but you do." The corners of Nevan's full lips rose delicately.  
"You mean you don't have any papers you have to sit through for now?" Vergil questioned.  
"You don't expect me to score internal marks the same day I step back to college, do you?" she asked back. "I'll see you at lunch."  
"We'll see you, too," Dante replied. He took his time watching her leave, and he still stared at the door after she was gone – but soon other students began entering and he had to face his brother's textbook again since there was no apparent use in having his own. Vergil losing his belongings is an event long considered unlikely.

* * *

The younger son of Sparda left his twin the moment Nay walks out of Globalization class; so many other people are also asking Nevan why she was missing for the six or so weeks. With all the attention paid to her, it would take a while for him to make himself seen.

Days without Dante – or at least hours – is a phenomenon the two would have to get used to again. Back in the first semester, he would have hung out with Brian's group, but now he spends his time with someone else. On top of that, the group is also lacking an original member.  
"Are you bor–?"  
"Absolutely," he said before she could finish pronouncing the latter half of the syllable.  
"I didn't bother doing Economics past-year questions because I despise how we have to speculate and then memorize things. Mathematics – I don't care since I'm counting on a borderline mark between Fail and Pass. There's nothing left to study in English. For Accounting, our teacher only gives us past-year and sample questions." She took out some non-college-related books she regularly wrote in. "I see no more necessary studying I had to do."

"What about Globalization?" he asked her.  
"I've got it covered. What – are you interested in the subject? I regretted not taking it in the first semester myself."  
"You must be pretty confident about passing your papers."  
How she wished her optimism was genuine; she stopped being serious about making high scores when she saw certainty that her degree-dreams were unachievable.

Dante arrived at the table at last, but did not sit down. "The Director has asked Nevan to see her directly. She'll probably be interrogated so the Director can verify the truthfulness of the official letter."  
His twin's jaw dropped half-fully. "You _are_ taking this seriously, aren't you?" he demanded.  
"Why wouldn't I be? Just when I thought I could hear more from her after all this time, she's taken away _again_!" Dante slammed his fists on the table.

Vergil looked as unperturbed as ever. Only Nay looked worried about this neighbor's state of wellbeing. For now she said nothing; she said all that was needed when Dante suffered the withdrawal from being with the international student.  
"Sit down, Dante," Vergil commanded.  
He complied.  
'What a disadvantage that he only listens when he is concerned about somebody I barely know,' the more authoritative twin kept the thought to himself.

The best thing for them to do now is to change the topic in case it helps take his mind off Nevan, but if they were to talk about college and the program syllabus, the conversation would always lead back to her, courtesy of her admirer.  
"Let's make a recap on Accounting theories," Nay suggested, setting her half-eaten bar of fruit aside.  
"Well, I have no problems there; it sounded like _you_ do," Dante teased.  
"Meanwhile, your weakness lies elsewhere – such as in Economics," Vergil fired back.  
"Yeah, I know that. It's not a particularly refreshing subject, but it _is_ easy, except if you're talking about the parts involving lots of calculations and concepts. With the right words and diagrams, we can score full marks in the second section of the paper."  
"Dante, Part B of Economics doesn't involve as many diagrams as Part A," Nay pointed out.  
"That's my weakness right there," he stated; his fingers began twirling a pencil. "I hope Nevan is able to perform well in Part A."

Vergil gave Nay a look to tell her not to resume talk of the international student. "Meanwhile, Jimmy hasn't turned up for Accounting yesterday, and he hasn't been in any of our classes up to now," he began.  
"D'you think he got attacked by whatever it is that escaped the stone mausoleum?" Nay wondered.  
"If he had…" There is an edgy look to Dante again. "… I just hope we have a good idea of what the thing targets. Jimmy is tall and weird; he wears glasses, and he's an evil mastermind."  
"Y'know, there's a chance that the thing has a versatile diet," Vergil said, even if he knew it could scare Nay. It could also worry her that the purple menace might target one of the twins next, or them both.

"Why didn't we talk about this yesterday at lunch with the boys?" Nay asked.  
"It just didn't cross our minds at the time," Vergil answered. "Look: it's happened. If we have to fix it, now could be the time."  
"If you want to look for the guys, go ahead; I'd like to stand by in case Nevan could still make it here," Dante said to them.

If there was pain in separation, Vergil would rather not show it here and now. "Take care of yourself, bro. That deck of cards can only keep you amused for so long."

* * *

It happened when the four were having lunch at a place named The White House for its white-painted walls while at the same time did not bring the U.S to the minds of most visitors there. His heart beat faster when he realized that she was calling him.

He took two seconds to compose himself before answering the call. "Hello?"  
"Brian, where're you at?"  
"I'm having lunch at another restaurant near college – the owner calls it The White House."  
"Oh. Well, Vergil and I wanted to talk to you guys in private, so d'you have the time before the last period? Or can you meet us after study-hours?"  
"We're used to staying back, girlie. How much time d'you need?"  
"At best, I'm counting on at least twenty minutes of discussion plus five minutes' walk to the Sanctuary – we have to double that for the return trip."  
"Half an hour, is it? We'll make it there in good time."  
"Don't get indigestion."

Zack, Matt and John diverted their attention from their lunch to their insanely laughing so-called ringleader. When Brian realized that half the restaurant has gone silent because of him, he cleared his throat and made sure those staring people also heard his next words: "I'll make sure of it." They spoke their parting words and hung up.  
"Who was it and what did he say that was so funny?" Matt asked as soon as Brian stored away his phone.  
"It was Nay; she told me to gouge out idle eyes that don't have anything purposeful to stare at," he said with a straight face.

Everyone other than the four guys resumed their original activities immediately.

* * *

He wore a cap instead of a hat on that day, but he still removed it when class hours are over.

The two whom he formerly preferred as a couple are punctual as usual. They appeared to be circling the vicinity to make sure the security guards will not stick around to eavesdrop. She had little trouble recognizing him after the Sharity Fiesta from what he can see now.

She needed not worry since they set their plans to be in line with Dante's; he could also use an extra half-hour in campus. They have also informed Sparda that they are staying back, but to be safe, Vergil added ten minutes to their arranged time scheme so they would not have to hurry back to the foyer after this meeting.

"Coast is clear; we can jump the gates now," Zack informed them.  
Matt commences discussion once they are all within the perimeter. "Well, here's where we always talked. What've you got on your minds?"  
"You do notice there's a stone mausoleum behind this building," Vergil brought the fact up.  
"Yeah…"

The four looked at each other waiting for one of them to make what Vergil predicted would be a winding or complicated clarification.  
Zack began walking slowly towards the back of the barely-walled building. "First off, we're more like secret agents than college students; believe what you like. But unlike typical upholders of good, our group tends to be picky because our sense of justice. There's a lot of our work that we did for our own good, but we still did our best to make sure it doesn't bug the commoners as much."  
"As if it's easy to deny the pleasure of pissing strict people off, eh?" Brian whispered to Nay.  
The currently most studious of the boys stopped in his tracks before continuing his explanation. "Rebels as we are, we can still tell the difference between demons and humans, and the alignment of either species."

"Does that mean you know...?" Nay intentionally did not finish her question.  
"Those ghost-swords scream demon powers when I see them. You haven't practiced much with them, have you?" Brian asked Vergil.  
"I didn't really see a reason to," he retorted.  
"Anyhow, there's something we have to let you know – about a demon we captured in the stone cuboid you called a mausoleum," John addressed the two extended members of his group, walking past Zack.

Nay realized something was wrong when she saw that the mausoleum looked almost exactly as it was when she and the twins first intruded upon the Sanctuary.

* * *

If I had to be accurate, I would have said she was completely gone by the start of September and she returns in the near-exact middle of October. Yes, I plan to wrap this up in the middle of December so that later on I can start something new.


	21. Eyes of a Demon

**Do My Calculations**

I just thought a little look into Nevan's point of view could clear up some mess.  
A warning to readers: there is real swearing in this chapter.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so.

Entry Twenty-One: Eyes of a Demon

Those humanoid bats have watched almost every move she made to keep an eye on the twins. She tried to spy on those boys for all the trouble they gave her, but she ended up getting captured.

The person who built the stone structure set a complex charm on the confinement device. For every attempt to break her prison from the inside, the force is converted into a power source that fortifies the stone even more. She could make no communication with the outside world. Sometimes it gets hot in there, and at times it was freezing.

But she would not die so easily. Demons like her could survive on their own powers; it was only the annoyance of hunger and thirst she had to bear.

One day there was a sudden shock felt about the stone cell. She waited a while in case somebody intended to set her free, but she thought of the following possibilities:  
Someone stole the key from the group and wanted to release her.  
One of the bat-boys turned against his team-mates in some way and has a reason to let her go.  
The boys misplaced the key and now a person who found it has unintentionally liberated her.

She kept in mind that the stone can only be opened from the outside. Despite the shock, she could not push the door open yet. When she could, she found herself facing a security guard of the private grounds. She knew she would have to drain the life out of him to replenish her strength.

To her fortune, nobody else – no security guards, no grounds staff – put even one foot on the soil of the little forest where many trees still stand. She has to regain orientation of the time and place surrounding her. She had to leave some people for dead after she consumes their life-force, but an unexpected chance led the bat-boy to the place where he and his friends subdued her.  
Revenge is just so very sweet.  
He was the one who built the edifice from remnants of building materials in the area. He was the one who disarmed her attempts of escaping.  
Now _he_ gets a taste of his own medicine.

* * *

Brian noticed the shocked expressions of the two irregular visitors and can prudently presume that they were staring at a key lodged in its hole on the structure's door.  
"Damn the pencil case," he muttered some other curses incoherently. Jimmy's balcony accident and the previous guard they raised against the outsiders made him postpone his concern for the key, which was supposed to still be in the case.  
There it is now, ready to be turned and opened.

It was how she escaped, which meant someone else would have been trapped inside. They can only be left to wonder why she did not take the key with her.  
Immediately Brian turned the key to unlock the structure. There were signs of strain on the hand he used to do it. He spread his arms and stepped backwards to warn the others to stay behind, and a door swung open to his expectation.

"Fresh air! Soda! Milkshake and fries!"  
It really is Jimmy, wearing yesterday's clothes, but now they hung loosely on his frame. He seemed to spill forth onto the ground.  
"She got out. She's escaped and put me in here. She smelled like death!" the tall man screamed, writhing on his back. He paused to say to them: "By the way, I was about to undo the spell I put on this crap. You could've waited a bit."  
His head slumped back due to gravity. His eyes closed and his breathing slowed.

"So… whatever you kept in there… it's a _she_?" Nay asked, frowning.  
"I should be either really glad or really upset that Dante isn't around to hear it from us, but the threat that we've kept here for all those weeks is really the July Intake girl he's been dating."  
Brian waited for the shock of the information to register.  
"_Nevan_ is the purplish menace?" Nay burst out.  
"And _I_ set her free?"

The boys and Nay but not Jimmy turned to peer at Vergil.  
"I mean, after we found the pencil case in this place, we raided the contents and I took out an envelope with a key. I didn't know why at the time, but I put the key in there and suddenly I got pushed back."  
A distance away, Matt talked side-handedly to John: "That's untapped demon power for you."  
"After that, we saw a security guard. We didn't think of pulling the key back out 'cause we didn't want to be seen," the half-demon continued.  
"Let's say this: you put the key in, but the guard turned it and opened the door," Brian deduced.  
John nodded to add: "Only human hands can operate this kind of mechanism." There was still a puzzled look to him when he moved his gaze over to his fallen comrade.

"Jimmy built this structure and set its spells, but he can still be careless," Zack stated.  
"Hey!" they can hear Jimmy wheeze.

Nay knelt down near his six-feet-plus figure. Brian followed suit, his expression sober. "We're going to send him home and take care of him. It's not as if we need more of your involvement in this than Dante becoming a sitting duck for the succubus."  
"Lay off! Neither of us thought it was a good match in the first place!" Nay told him, glancing at Vergil to see if he agrees with her.

He turned to look elsewhere, though. "Is it me, or does anyone here smell decay and decomposition?" he asked.

Matt and John volunteered to survey the area outside the gate farther east. Brian was about to pick Jimmy off the ground until he held up a hand to the longer-haired man. "Save yourself the energy. If they found something, you won't like it, but it's necessary that you do."

His words rang true when there are exclamations like "Oh my god!" and "What the fuck!?" from the tree-covered areas. The scouts came back pale and shaken.  
"There are dead bodies piled somewhere there," John informed them.  
"Security guards, gardeners, even a guy in some striped clothes – they've all got marks on their lips or necks. They looked like dried blood," Matt described what he witnessed.

It seemed that only Nay and Vergil did not seem affected by morbid words. Maybe long years of Sparda upbringing and violent video games have cultured them to be immune against things that commoners would normally feel disgusted with.

"Alright, now we can go."  
A sudden movement from Jimmy made Brian jump.  
"We're sorry about the other day, big guy. Let's get you the soda you wanted."  
"I changed my mind and said _milkshake and fries_, remember?"

The five each had smiles on their faces. "This will be all for now," Brian notified them, putting his cap back on.  
"What do we do about Dante?" Vergil questioned.  
"Break it to him in the gentlest way possible, like, make sure he's in his comfort zone when you start talking to him. If he doesn't believe you," he said with a sigh, "he'll be in for a rude awakening."

* * *

That night in the Sparda residence…

Dante had just finished his dinner of pizza – this time with cheese, and no other toppings.

Vergil tried not to shudder at how his twin could eat that much cheese at a time or sigh at what a waste it is not to have at least pineapples to add some zing.

The twin in a relationship has heard from his girlfriend about how other female classmates wanted her help to set them up with the single twin. Vergil was unwilling to date anyone at the moment, but if Nay saw him wearing a 'Single but Not Available' T-shirt, she would definitely give him the cold shoulder. He has seen this happen to a Globalization classmate of hers at lunch. There was something about that phrase that seems to drive her up the wall.

"Hey, Verge, did you hear about the girl who asked Nevan if she can set you with her?"  
He tried not to sigh in exasperation; after all, he did want to lower his twin's guard.  
"Which girl is it this time?"

He did not bother paying attention. Most of the time, Dante would describe the asking girl as physically attractive to human eyes; to him, Nevan is out of this world. If only he realized how literal his statement is…

"Well, she's either an international student or someone who had grown up here, whose parents obviously don't look local. She's got dark hair that's kind of short for a girl, but her eyes are differently colored, not that she wore contacts or anything."  
"Doesn't sound like my type," Vergil replied.  
Maybe tonight Dante realized his brother had been saying the same thing about the girls described to him. "If you don't want to start seeing girls this way, you could've just said it."

Vergil finished packing his single-strapped bag for another day of college, which is tomorrow. "Do you remember the purplish menace that we thought would terrorize the campus? Well, she's closer to taking us down than you think."  
The younger twin snapped to attention. "You mean the purplish menace is a _she_?" What horror it is to hear the same thing from two different people.

It seems that he has to play Brian's role now. If he had time, he would have wondered who Dante would more strongly believe in, his brother or one of his peers, but the final exams _are_ around the corner…

"She was in our Economics class today, but she left when Brian and his gang came around."  
"Wait a minute. Didn't I hear from you about Jimmy spilling secrets from the group? He did mention being part of some superhero squad."  
How he wished Dante did not just get sidetracked, but the shirtless of the two of them continued: "Maybe she was afraid that the guys would _own_ her."

He was about to give up until Dante proceeded to ask: "Wait again – how did you know she was in our classroom?"  
"Well, I saw her."  
"What did she look like?"

Vergil waited for the right moment to say it, no matter how painful it is for his twin to accept.

"She has long reddish hair, not too petite and shows a lot of skin for even a college student."

Dante looked blankly at him for a moment. "If this is a joke, it sounds horrible," he stated.  
He can go easy with his breath and start sighing now. "Believe what you like, Dante. I could do nothing about that."  
"Alright." With hardly more than a peek into his backpack, Dante pulled the sheets over himself.

* * *

Earlier that afternoon in the Program Director's office…

From outside the office, it would have looked like the blinds completely removed visibility past the window. In truth, there were bats covering every inch of the office walls.

The Program Director – a middle-aged woman who made herself look younger – hid under the table where she gets most of her work done. She dared not touch the bats as they would obey their mistress's commands whether to deliver a shock of lightning, bite or scratch the older woman.

"Listen here," the so-called international student began pacing. "I don't want any trouble from the authorities, and you're a suitable example of them. Ergo, I don't want any fuss from you."  
"What did I ever do to you?" the Director instinctively screamed back.

"Dare you ask? Just a few minutes ago you were talking about a warning to remove me from this program. I could've toasted you up pretty nicely for that alone."  
"W-what do you want from me? High Distinction grades for all your papers? The answers to all the papers? I'll do what I can, but please don't hurt me!"  
"I intend to stay in this program until the end and be left alone. At the same time, I don't want anyone knowing about this. If I found out that you blabbed…"

* * *

Grown-ups aren't exempted from feeling fear.


	22. Book People

**Do My Calculations**

I don't know if anyone's paying attention to this anymore, but I'll keep writing because I have to finish this. I know it was meant to be completed last year, but who am I kidding?  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so.

Entry Twenty-Two: Book-People

Lecturers are all tensed up today, and they will be until next Thursday because that is as long as they have until the first exam paper is on.

"Can you believe we only have one week to study for the papers?" Vergil wondered aloud when they got out of English class. They do not know whether to incorporate the novel into their conversation or keep it out of their heads at the time.  
"We'll still have one more week after that, but people who took Computer Science or other Science-related subjects will finish much later," Dante said.

"Globalization class hasn't started yet." Nay peered into the empty classroom. "It's safe for us to stick there for the moment. I brought my flute today."  
"You mean you aren't going to study?" Vergil asked her.

She assembled the three parts. "I know my marks in this subject, and I'm _not_ going to be overconfident about it. I just need a puff or two on this thing."  
"Here's a substitute for smoking," Dante joked.  
"I suppose you'll do your best to evade the books, too," Vergil remarked.

"Yep; I'll be hanging out with the guys, or what's left of them." Brian and Matt are in another class while Jimmy really needed the day off.  
"See you soon, Dante."

Little did they know that he was not heading for the Student Services Center. Someone else is at the foyer, waiting to spend the day with him.  
"Hello, gorgeous. I didn't expect you to come," Nevan exclaimed.  
"It's not like Vergil's going to be with me all the time. We're pretty used to separation." Dante added as an afterthought: "From each other, I mean."  
"Well, I'm glad of that."  
"By the way, he's asked me to ask you not to tell me to tell him about the girls we could set him up with." He gave a small sigh. "That's a mouthful."  
"Has he told you why, though?"  
"For one thing, I could only assume that was what he wanted."

He really hoped he could keep the topic last night out of mind. This pretty girl here could not be the purplish menace that could be sneaking up behind them right now.  
"As for why he didn't want to meet girls this way, I guess he had what he'd like to call 'dignity'. He's the old-fashioned guy, after all," he continued.  
"So if he's _really_ in love, he would've been prepared with flowers, chocolates and all?" Nevan asked.  
"I've never seen him all sapped up. I don't think I've even seen him happy."  
"Real men aren't afraid to show or share their emotions. I'm just glad I'm dating a real man at the moment."

* * *

Back in class, most of the other Globalization students have entered the class.  
"Aren't you worried about getting caught?" Vergil asked when Nay finished playing some tunes from a song. It was about a man afraid of losing his woman and killing her so that her corpse would be his forever, but she came back to kill him in return. They got married and lived evilly ever after.

"You know, at one point the teacher said that the flute's sound might relieve her of the headaches I give her," one student known as Joseph spoke up.  
"Well, now Ms. Uma is giving _me_ a headache. When's she going to be here?" a taller boy named Phil asked aloud.  
"She's always late for class, don't you remember?" a bespectacled girl with long wavy hair pointed out.

Another classmate volunteered to check, perhaps eager to find out whether he and his friends can spend a whole hour somewhere not as stuffy.  
"Don't you have any hobbies? I mean, to study all the time; that's something that can freak me out," Nay told Vergil.  
"I play darts," he said indignantly.  
"Well, that's good. Do you have anything else? I mean, you can't throw sharp objects into people's eyes all the time."  
"I still play some soccer."  
"I play the guitar."  
"I read non-study books."  
"I write."  
Vergil decided to end this match of seeing who has more hobbies.

"Now _that_ is something that can freak me out. You write all the time."  
"I'm not writing now," she denied. She was about to open a book when the volunteering classmate came back in.

"She's on leave today," he told them.  
"Finally! Let's hang out at Pyramid," Phil suggested.  
"Do we have to go there every time?" Joseph asked him.

Nay packed her flute in its case. If the audience disappears, she should, too.  
"I suppose you're going to spend the next few hours _not_ studying?" Vergil questioned.  
"This has happened before. I always lose my mood to study when the exams are close by," she answered. "Besides, who else can study when Dante could be attacked at any time?" Her tone gave a good indication that Vergil could.

"This is madness. I tried to tell him about it last night, but he wouldn't believe me."  
"You did tell him it was Nevan, didn't you?"  
"In no uncertain terms."

* * *

The hour passed in silence. As usual, they are at the same table, one reading and the other writing.

"Blam!"  
Somebody slammed his hands on the table surface, nearly giving Vergil a heart attack.  
Brian's grin dimmed slightly when he saw lines of irritation on Nay's face; the shock had caused her to write an inappropriate word in the book. He completely switched his expression to serious when he sat down next to her.  
"So, have you told him yet?" he asked them.  
"I did, but I was hoping the rest of you could break it to him. He said he was going to hang around with Zack and John," Vergil replied.  
"Well, they didn't see him after English."

There was no need to state the worst.

"Hey, we don't have Accounting class today, so is it alright if you come over to our place in ten minutes' time? We were afraid Jimmy would go loco from not getting his two days' worth of the syllabus," Brian said.  
"I thought Jimmy was already loco," Nay managed to say with a straight face.  
Vergil sniffed. "This is going to involve studying, so I'll call Father and tell him to fetch you from here."  
"I can drive you home, you know. You just don't see me driving enough because Matt owns the convertible and he won't let me," the hat-wearing student spoke out.

"Everybody gets some free time today," the half-demon said with amusement.

They met with the remaining three; Dante was nowhere to be found.  
"You drive, don't you, Vergil?" Matt asked when they reach his car. Brian sat in the front passenger seat as usual.  
"I do. Nay doesn't, though," he answered.  
"I was going to take lessons after the exams," she muttered.

"Are you sure four people can fit back there?" Brian aimed the question bluntly.  
"You know, we can always stuff John in the trunk," Zack joked.  
"Hey!"  
"I'll just have to squeeze in," Nay shrugged.

"Don't even think about it," Vergil told Brian when he offered to switch places with him.

* * *

Had Jimmy been sitting upright, they would have seen that he was air-drumming. He could barely walk since the incident, but he is slowly recovering his strength. When Brian entered the room, Jimmy wasted no time greeting. "What did you guys study today? I have to know."  
"The usual crap – well, they're crap to me anyway. Vergil's downstairs; he'd be glad to help –"  
Brian could barely finish when Jimmy used all his energy to jump out and trip at the door. "– you."

"We could surely help him, too," Matt told him, picking Jimmy off the floor.

He seems surprised that Nay was there, too. "Oh, so you _were_ together! Sheesh, this college is _loaded_ with happy couples!" he exclaimed.  
A vein throbbed on Vergil's forehead. "When you see two people spend seemingly a lot of time with each other, do you _have_ to suspect something between the two?"  
"Especially if they're both men; my brothers could spend hours playing Red Alert 3," Nay told them.  
"You guys seem to spend eternity with each other –"  
"Alright, stop it!" John told Vergil. The shortest of the boys made a sigh sound like a hiss. "You guys sure can give dirty notions."  
"We don't give them; we took yours and turned them back on you," Nay responded.

Brian's gaze is one that just screams 'caution must be taken'.  
Zack returned from the kitchen with an armload of root-beer and potato chips.

They left Jimmy and Vergil to work their homework out. Yes, even Matt, Brian and John's.  
"So Nevan is a demon that is potentially very harmful to ordinary people who don't know that demons exist. Do you think she knows Dante is half a demon?" Nay pondered.  
"IMO, if she dates ordinary guys, I don't think they can make it to college," John replied.  
"She must have a motive to date someone who can handle her, although she doesn't show it…" Brian surmised grimly.

Nay remembered the time Nevan tried to cheat on Dante with his own twin. "Here's where I need your heads, guys, because in my opinion, she's a hoe," she said after telling the story.  
"Who's gardening?" Jimmy called from the table.  
John and Matt looked awkwardly at him.

"So in other words – mine, that is – she's opportunistic. I could say that not only does she want to spend time with the energetic Dante, she also wants to get the best out of the sophisticated Vergil," Zack continued.  
'I suppose he _really_ has to describe us as objects,' Vergil thought, putting his pencil down to take a more significant part on the conversation.  
This action of his slightly worried Jimmy.

"The reason Nevan doesn't persist when Vergil and Dante aren't in the same area is the existence of an external force that acts as a conscience."  
"I'm Vergil's conscience?" Nay was about to laugh.  
"Think of it; you're human. She could easily have gotten rid of you, but you're no ordinary human. You're friends with the less-well-known son of Sparda," Brian pointed out.  
"There's a chance that she didn't kill Nay off because Verge treats her like a fellow beer-buddy even if they don't go into the same bathroom," Jimmy added.

"Thank you for your helpful but disturbing thoughts, recovering patient," John nodded.  
"Next moves, guys; next moves," Matt urged them.  
"But what can we do, really? Dante doesn't believe us. This is going to be one messed-up game of trust," Vergil exclaimed.  
Brian raised his hands. "Let's make a recap here: Dante doesn't believe what _you_ say about Nevan. He could probably believe Nay, if she tried hard, or he could believe any of us five."  
"If that's all there is to it, we're done here. You can drive us to our houses, as you claimed –" Jimmy made his best imitation of a sad-puppy face. "– after I fill Jimmy in on what the Economics teacher said about the final chapter," the studious half-demon informed them.

* * *

This is what happens when I take a drabble and turn it into a plotted story.  
And the song is 'A Little Piece of Heaven'. It's easier for me to describe it comparing to other songs in the album.


	23. Turn A Little More

**Do My Calculations**

The near-end of this chapter might contain influences from Reaper. On another note, I'm no romance expert.  
I'm doing my turd semester now because I failed some papers. That means I'm still in college… Was planning for this story to end soon, but there's a lot of blanks that needed filling up.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so. Aes Sedai / dominant woman vision belongs to Robert Jordan. Part of title taken from a line originally sung as 'swing a little more'.

Entry Twenty-Three: Turn A Little More

Weekend Musings

It must have been a season and a half since he last used his demon-powers – the ones that enabled him to summon questionably tangible miniature swords which can sail straight towards his opponents or circle them first before stabbing them.  
He worked this out with a training dummy.  
There was no question as to who the dummy was at the time. Now, though, he has to settle with using… eh… stuff…  
Sparda always brought some down and wrapped them in tough but cheap material so that he can train his brawn power on them from time to time. Of course, he has to clean up _most_ of the messes; Vergil started using the Training Junk as well, which meant this son should take a bit of responsibility as well.

He asked no questions about his other son not possessing any demon power, though. It had been, like, six or seven months ago when Vergil finally called the swords out. That could be it. Maybe Dante wasn't sincerely asking for demon powers – or he was just too distracted to call them out. It could have something to do with the nature of dualities in a spectrum, too; his human side is more noticeable than his demon side. 'Yes, that could be it,' Sparda mused as the little spheres of light weave around his claws like some sort of weird traffic.

When there are kids in the house, the wife does not worry about her husband as often as she would without. Time will come, though, when she genuinely worries about the state of being of her monogamous partner.  
"Honey, have you taken out the trash yet?"

"Soon, Eva!" Sparda answered her, hurriedly putting the lumps of used tissue paper back in the plastic bag. He would rather not mention what he does with the garbage on his way of taking it out.  


* * *

Monday

'What would be a good way to make Dante believe what Vergil said about Nevan?' Nay wondered. Her right forearm became a pillow for her forehead while her left hand held her flute-case as if anyone would take it away from her at any time. Classes will start in half an hour, but the twins did not take their breakfast yet. She had, before she left her house; maybe the pantry in the Sparda residence has run out.  
She did not follow the twins to the cafeteria. They don't need to hang with her all the time.

"I'm going to the bathroom. You go ahead and talk to Nay for a bit," Vergil said; he thought about this plan last night.  
"What do you want me to say to her that you don't want to say yourself?" Dante asked suspiciously.  
"Just take the sandwich and go," he was met with that reply. At the last word, Vergil walked quickly in the direction of the bathroom. Putting up this pretence might not be as hard as he thought after all.

The puzzled look remained on Dante's face until he sits at the common area designated for students – for any reasons they need tables that are joined with their chairs.

"What happened?" Nay hardly ever counts herself as an accurate observer of things.  
"I heard him say he wanted me to talk to you. I don't know what that's all about," Dante explained.  
She momentarily turned her gaze to the east where the sun rises. It probably is about time she tells him; the first exam paper is on this Friday.  
"Is it hard for demons to identify other demons? I mean, the mundane humans would always assume that most other people are human."  
"Well, I'm half-human, which makes it harder for me to answer that."

He meant it as a joke, but Nay cussed herself for asking a stupid question.

"Anyway, Vergil told me to tell you something."  
'This must be why he doesn't want to be here. He wants her to tell me something he can't say himself,' Dante thought.  
"Dante, Nevan is a demon in disguise. I heard she has something in store for you and Vergil." Judging by how Nay said it, it wasn't good.

The hybrid just blinked; this he has heard from Vergil before, but the notion of sweet Nevan being a demon just couldn't stick with him. "Have you even seen a real demon before? And I mean in their raw form," he challenged her.  
Her face showed no mood for competition. It stayed the serious Nay he knew to always have hung out with his brother. "Truth be told, I've never seen her not looking like a human. I have my sources, but I also know that don't have the proof. I wish I can lie with a straight face, but most of the time, I suppose I can't."  
He can see that she was not making eye contact. He studied her hands and saw that she seemed to be fidgeting with her pencil-case most of the time. It could be just her, or she really did lie.

Vergil can be seen making quick strides to their table. If they saw right, Nevan was not far enough behind.  
"Hello, Dante. So what are we doing today?" the red-haired young lady asked innocently.

Whether or not they can see it, Dante's thoughts were caught between trying to figure out Nay's message and checking on plans he has on that day. He tried to look casual under careful scrutiny by opening his backpack to peek at a copy of the class timetable. The paper was still somewhat fresh because he does not take it out often.  
"I'm sure you're free in the first hour, but I've got classes to go to. I got word that the teachers will try making it to class this time around; they could've made final tweaks in our exam question papers over the weekend," he said, trying to sound logical. Maybe he does.  
Vergil's jaw dropped and hung for a few seconds. When he realized it, he quickly put his right hand to his now-closed mouth in a gesture that suggested he was clearing his throat of what saliva had made its way there. He glanced at Nay to see if she wants to say anything.  
"Class starts in thirteen minutes," she made a quick calculation from what she saw on her watch.

"Well, we still have time to make small chat, don't we? As if it's a crime, because a lot of people do it every day," Nevan pointed out.  
Dante hoped nobody else had paid close attention to the stray blog post that teaches people how to detect a liar, because now his smile might belong to one.  
"That should be fine. I'll see you guys in class." He made his latter sentence sound as genuine as possible because he honestly wanted to solve the mystery of what made the two stay away from Nevan for the duration of this semester.

* * *

The known couple walked down the road east of the college. There are still cars passing the area, but there are a lot of trees planted at the side, too, and they seem to have been there for ages. If trees were so relaxing to human eyes, he wondered why hardly anyone ever used the benches on this side of the campus near the classrooms for art and design.

"How was your weekend?" Nevan asked him.  
"What can I expect? Our parents didn't want us to get too distracted so close to exam season."  
The two of them were about to sit on one of the stone benches when Dante spotted the trail of ants crawling on it in time. _Now_ he knew why people don't like to sit here.  
Nevan gave a shrug. "Well, mine was pretty boring. Whenever I tried to open my books, I just can't pay attention to what's in them."

Dante nodded, hoping she cannot read minds. 'Normally Vergil can't bear standing close to a girl I like because he wants to avoid the chances of her cheating with him on me. The rational reason for Nay to hate Nevan could be that she's jealous, but Nay isn't normal. Does Verge want to use her to make me stay away from Nevan? What is _that_ for?'  
If he had truly been observant, he would have been amazed at the speed with which he is thinking. 'Maybe both of them agreed that Nevan was a bad influence on me. After all, they seem to want me to study with them. They miss me… They're concerned about my grades…'  
"Are you okay?" Nevan asked when she saw him staring interestedly at a sign on a tree-trunk that read 'This Is A Palm Tree'.  
"Uh, I'm alright. I'm just thinking about how hard the first paper's going to be."

"Exams aren't everything, darling," she said firmly.  
"I know I've heard Nay say that to Vergil, except for that last part."  
"You're not thinking of dumping me, are you?"  
Her gasp made it sound dramatic, but he tried to keep his head cool there.  
"Let's try looking at it like a record production, or the airing of shows. It's going to be suspended because of technical reasons, in our case exams, but we can have much more fun in the holidays. There won't be classes then."  
She seems to have taken his optimism the wrong way. "Are you comparing our relationship to media entertainment?"

"Nevan, my brother and my neighbor are concerned about my marks. They think they have my best interests, but I trust their hunches like my parents' because they can't keep an eye on me nearly all the time. I just realized this morning that the guys really missed me," Dante spoke his thoughts.  
Her arms were folded. She was not really as tall as he is, but that stare she gives right now is making the impression that she is looking down at him.  
"So you're going to decide that our relationship take a pause."  
He nodded.  
"Well, you'll be certain that in these few weeks, I'm going to miss you, too."  
"I've missed you when you weren't here. The thing about it is that we didn't have a clear mark on when we are really separated – temporarily," he added.  
"Here's a mark for you, then," Nevan said in her softest voice, coming closer to kiss him on his lips.

Dante has kissed this girl numerous times before, but this one felt different, as if she really did leave some part of herself with him.  
"I'll see you again in two weeks' time."  
They parted ways, for now.

He did feel as though something was wrong. That little 'mark' now felt like a stain somewhere on him, but he can't quite place where.  
When he passed the stairs to the Sanctuary, there was gleeful laughter coming from the treetops.

He looked up immediately; he remembered the sound since approximately four months ago.  
"Well, well, dig your own well! You've made it clear who you like now, but news on its own does not make it a believable, known fact," the voice spoke. It emanated from a furry or feathery purple thing.  
Dante grinned when he finally recalled the chain of events resulting from a plan gone wrong. "You're Jester, aren't you?" The correct, existing plans-on-paper were already taken to safety.  
"Hmm, strong memory – too bad you're not going to use that for your question papers."

It was too late for him to see what Jester did when the purple self-proclaimed joker suddenly landed on his collarbone.  
"What the hell is up with you?" Dante yelled. His left hand grasped Jester's ankle, but he kicked that one off just as easily.  
Before he can open his big mouth to answer, a human-sized winged thing flew down and knocked the clown off.

Dante inhaled – because he can do it more smoothly now and he was taken by surprise. He sat up and watched the tussle go downhill. Neither fighter bothered to use the stairs to get there. The human-sized creature looked like a skeleton with some traces of sinew and clothing, and a pair of bat-wings popping off its shoulder-blades. Its sneaker collided with Jester's face for what seemed to be the third time. After another elbow jab, the skeleton-bat held the white-faced purple-dressed maniac against one side of the green gates of the Sanctuary. Both bat and half-demon spectator can see the comically weary face on the jester before he disappears in a poof of confetti.

The skeleton-bat punched some bars on the gate in disappointment.  
Dante was shaking as he stood from the ground.  
At the sight of him, the creature raised its shoulders and lowered its head, legs standing straight and arms hanging loose. There was a hiss of a long breath before the wings retract and the skeleton's features turn human from there on. The tattoos and eyebrows made it easy for Dante to recognize Matt.  
Looking normal now, the young man smiled. "Just so you know, that was only for show," he explained while climbing up the stairs. He patted Dante in the back shortly afterwards.

"You're really – a –" Dante could not finish his question.

"Let's cut to the chase and face it; you're going to have to know sooner or later that I'm a demon, and so are my four minions. They hated being called that, but the word just seems fitting for now," Matt told him, walking at an unusual speed toward the southeast staircase closest to the college building entrance. He had to half-carry Dante with an arm around his shoulder just so they won't lose sight of each other if they were to talk.  
"What's the time now?"  
"My watch says that we're about three minutes late. Just so you know, this isn't even close to the last time we had an early morning water-fight in the bathroom. Trust me; it was much riskier doing that than smelling like dead leaves."

When they entered the classroom, Vergil's seat is next to the wall; the table between his and Nay's is empty. A walkway separated her table from Brian's, which is on the same row. The two seemed to have talked for some time before the two boys came in. It was a good thing the teacher has not arrived yet, even if most students already have.  
"Can I sit at your place? I'm not hot on sitting even this close to walls," Dante told Nay.  
"Alright." She moved her belongings to the seat next to Vergil's.

Dante set his bag down and looked at Brian, then at his neighbor. He looked at them again for a second time when he remembered Matt is a demon, saying that the rest of them are such as well… But he tried not to make it look obvious. He took out his writing materials and a blank paper. The look of nonchalance is best when one feels he is being monitored.

'What's going on, man? I hardly remember Nay being so… _chatty_ with another guy.'  
'Well, you don't see _me_ talking where everyone can hear me.' The telepathic talk remained between the twins.  
'This is different from when we're interviewing the guys at lunch outside campus.'  
'How so?'  
'How long have they been talking for?'  
'I'm not a timer, Dante.'  
'At least give me a hint of time.'  
'It wasn't _that_ long. We were in the classroom until the boys came in. Then she moved her stuff there.'  
'Don't tell me you're not doing anything about this.'  
'I don't see anything wrong with what's between them at the moment, if it _is_ anything.'

The teacher finally arrived with a stack of past-year question papers. Maybe not many people saw it this way, but learning something for nearly four months only to speculate which questions would come up is a very odd system of education. Maybe the students in this room would not have been reduced to people who chat about daily life and celebrities, but instead what happens around the world and what can be done to make things better.  
The words 'maybe' and 'probably' are not usually very trustworthy.  


* * *

If my writing had a humorous streak to it, blame it on my recent reading of a Terry Pratchett book.


	24. Silence And Marks

**Do My Calculations**

Thanks MazdaKitsune for the fav.  
On another note, I'll just say that while the five guys can morph from demon form to human and vice versa, their abilities are restricted to the current state they are in.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so. Jimmy's retort in Math class came from a suspicion that a friend of mine had in the July 2008 semester.

Entry Twenty-Four: Silence And Marks

Brian seemed to have noticed Dante's look of protectiveness for his neighbor. Every time he turned his head to look at Nay, Dante would be ready to glance back in his direction.  
So after eight months of knowing each other, the suspicion has come to a height that just about broke the half-demon's trust in the boys who claim that they stand for selected justice.

She looked bored as usual, though. If she was excited about the exam season passing like a motor vehicle on the road, she might have shown it. Then again, if she worried about Dante's proximity with Nevan, she should have shown that. Then again, it was hard to decide what emotions were strongest in one who would rather say they have mixed feelings at one point.

"Something happened to Dante," Brian stated; he aimed it at Matt, the one who volunteered to check on him.  
"He saw me, alright. Our curtains have fallen," he replied in a low voice, masking his words in an area where some ears might pick up things.  
When the red-wearing twin adjusted the soft round collar of his T-shirt, Brian saw some mark of injury there.  
"Fill me in on the details."  
"Just you? I know I need more details than you can take," Jimmy interrupted the hat-wearer. Ever since he came back to college, he looked like he has to hide his six-feet-plus figure somewhere. It wasn't a case of being vain about looking sick, but Nevan's escape hurt his pride more than how she drew life-force out of him.

Dante thought Nay was gazing at Brian again, but she only watched him for what makes him jumpier than usual this morning.  
"Matt went downstairs to look for you. Did something important happen between you and Nevan?" she asked him.  
"We just decided to stay apart during paper season. We parted in good terms, if I can say so myself."  
"Then why do you look like someone hit you in the chest?"  
"Oh – that was a gift from some freak who calls himself Jester. He isn't human if you ask me," he explained.

Vergil dropped his pen in shock and said to Dante: "You didn't mention _him_ being here!"  
"That's what you get when you don't ask questions," he found the time to joke.  
Nay looked at the two of them. "Were you, by any chance, conversing without me earlier?" she asked, her forearms crossed as one index finger points at Dante and the other at Vergil.  
"We can converse now if you want. By the way, do you know that the five guys are demons?"

He suspected the worst when the two glanced knowingly at each other.  
"We do. They're the ones who told us about Nevan being – you know," Vergil spoke in a low voice.  
"It took a while for us to tell you about that because from the looks of it, you liked spending time with her," Nay added.  
Dante braced himself to ask a question. "Now that this couple is on pause, what about you and Brian?"

She pretended not to know. "What; you suspected that something's up between us?"  
"You were talking to him when I came. What was it about?"  
"He asked if there's anything I'm doing during the holidays. That was the extent of the chat before you came in."  
"But he isn't asking Vergil or me?"  
"I don't know – not yet, I suppose."

Dante remembered the days when he spent much of his time with the five. Those days weren't so long ago, but something changed his unwritten schedule. That could be Nevan – him and her being committed to each other – but they were rarely in sight when he is with her, even in places where many students also roam. It was as if they were hiding from him – or her…  
'Jimmy _did_ call her a spooky redhead; Nay also said they were the ones who told her and Vergil about Nevan being a demon. Heck, they're demons, too. Is there a war?'

* * *

On a slightly different side of the classroom…

"I got out to the corridor on the east side, and when there's nobody around, I just turned bat and jumped off the railing. It was fun gliding a little while, but when the purple freak came, I've got to swoop down and kick his ass."  
"Dude, you got to sky-dive without us! The next time someone has to be saved, put me up on the recruitment list," Jimmy told him.  
"Man, are you sure? You look like _your_ ass could be whooped pretty easily," John reminded the tall guy sitting behind him.

"Tell us about this particular purple freak that attacked Dante," Brian asked of Matt.  
"I never knew he existed in the first place. The only purple freak we knew was – you know who," he responded.  
Sitting in front of them, Zack nodded. "Have you asked Nay if Dante believes what she said about _the menace_ yet?" he whispered to Brian when the teacher goes to another question.  
He who still wears his hat in class shut his eyes tightly and let his head drop to his forearms, hiding his self-disappointed face from the rest of them.  
"You forgot," John stated.  
"Damn! I thought it'd make our business more efficient!" Jimmy whispered with an exclamation mark.  
Brian raised his head and risked another glance in the direction of the three. "We can go ask Dante himself later on, unless you count this little revelation as sensitive," he said.

The twins will be in the same class as John, Zack and Jimmy in the second period, so they took their chances there.

'You said she moved her stuff there. Did he call her there, or was it by her choice?'  
'Well, I didn't hear him greeting her first, and I didn't see if he waved at her or anything.'  
'Verge, take your face off the papers for a bit. I was afraid I'm going to see quadratic equations all over your face.'

He indeed listened to that last part.

'Alright, I've already had you all over my face. Now what?' Vergil asked, making full eye contact with his brother.  
'Is she digging Brian? Does Brian dig her? Is it a two-way road?'  
'I don't see why you have to care about that. It worked out with Mom and Dad.'  
'I didn't mean that! What I'm trying to say is – don't _you_ like her?'  
'Well, she's always been another brother to me. We're too close to go out together.'  
'Dude, that is the lamest excuse I've ever heard.'  
'Would you stop trying to set people up with me?'

"Are you gentlemen speaking to each other through the mind-medium?" Zack asked. The two of them did not notice him, John and surprisingly Jimmy sitting at the row in front of theirs since class began.  
"How'd you know that we were?" Dante questioned.  
"Oh. If you weren't, that must be because you were talking to each other in sign language. You've been using some hand gestures back there," he commented.  
Vergil stared pointedly at his twin.

At this point in time, the teacher has asked the students to shut the – in other words, to keep up a pin-drop silence. It was a question as to why they use the figure of the pin when an example of one could be the size of a flagpole.

The three boys kept their student-ruse up until the class buzzed to the right chatting level for them to turn their other shoulders to the whiteboard and lean back to talk to one particular twin.  
"Hey, Dante, do you have any inclination as to Nevan being an opportunistic b–"  
"What Jimmy was trying to ask is if you suspect anything weird about her," John helpfully explained.

He frowned at this and glanced at Vergil. "Was it so hard to tell me this because you thought this is an overly sensitive matter?"  
"It seemed like it at the time," Jimmy said, eyeing his short friend coldly for his censorship.  
"It's alright now, I'm sure. I mean, the two closest people I've been living with have said it to me – but they both trust you. Can I hear more about this, though?"  
"This is not the time to ask 'why so serious', Dante, if you catch my drift. Those months when she missed classes were when we guys – there's no way I can say this without hurting you," Zack added in a whisper, "caught her and put her in stony confinement."

Dante straightened from his slouch out of shock. "Holy crap, why?"  
John checked on the classroom environment; no student can actually bend to a teacher's ambitious command for silence.  
Zack continued upon knowing the coast is clear. "Like they've been trying to say to you, Nevan is a demon. We fought her directly back then, those months ago. It cost both sides some class-time, but we have the numbers. Then that accident happens…"  
"You're talking about the key I put in there but never took out. Some guard turned it and set her free, and then she put Jimmy into the stone," Vergil added bits of explanation.

The tall student tried not to wince at this recollection.

"But I still don't get it. Being another demon in campus isn't enough reason for you guys to chase and catch her."  
"There are a number of other demons in college that we don't think you'd notice. Do you remember Kester? He has come down a long line of humans, but he has demon ancestry," Zack said.  
'So _he_ is the latest descendant of the Experimenter demon,' Vergil suspected.  
"Other demons regard us as the peacekeepers around here, as much as we love the adrenaline rush of chaos. Nevan has been abusing her powers for her own gain, not to mention she's tried to take down some other demons as well," John continued.

Dante remained silent on the topic. He did not know what to think of the dazzling girl who made him happy. "I'm sorry, guys, but I just can't put it in my mind that she's that bad. I mean, you guys are demons, and you could be planning something, too. Heck, I didn't know that part about you until Matt flew down and all."  
"Did you hear _her_ side of being a demon? Did you think we were slamming Nay and Vergil up against you and Nevan?" John questioned.

Dante thought his ears were going to bleed when the teacher yelled in their direction.  
"What could be so interesting there that is more important than studying for your Math finals?" she demanded, predictably using words that would intimidate normal students.  
Vergil gripped his fist tightly, resisting the urge to throw a ghost sword in any part of her that he can aim blindly at.  
Jimmy was trying to think at lightning speed when he came up with the best answer ever: "We were wondering if the exam markers will mark the papers by random and select students of some nationalities over others."

Such an allegation drew the classroom to a state of shock. There were gasps from girls and jaw-drops from boys. The nerds looked insecure. Delinquents who sat at the backmost row of the room came forward to talk to the lecturer in her face. Studying the situation with an additional glance at his watch, which showed that they have thirty-three minutes before the lesson ends, Zack nodded for the rest to follow him out. Not many will notice them going off in this confusion until it is over.  
Besides, there wasn't much of a point of being in classrooms anymore than to talk to friends; they have all passed their internal exams with enough marks to allow them to take the papers that really matter.

The boys descended to the ground floor via the stairs in case the teacher is going to look for them and take stern action against them. As another note, the demons in human form aren't really sure yet about the twins' flying abilities.

"Well, _that_ question went on unanswered, but so was this: Was there something up between Brian and Nay?" Dante asked.  
Vergil nearly groaned but did not, although he still rolled his eyes.  
It was a question left for Brian's friends to answer, though. "I didn't notice," Jimmy said first. "I thought there was something between her and Vergil, but then she said something about people spending a lot of time together, and it was really dirty."  
John and Zack glanced at each other, unsure what to make of it. Zack decided to speak: "It's a metalhead thing. We're a rare breed in this institution. There's the five of us, but I guess people were intimidated by our tattoos, musical direction and ambition. Now, holidays are near, which normally bored us to death, but we caught wind that she's got some songs written, and Brian's interested in that."

Somehow Dante didn't buy that. He turned to John. "What kind of songs has she written? I mean, if she did anything, she didn't do it with us."  
"I'd rather not talk about that. Brian found out that I've been spilling secrets, so whatever it is that leaked out that he didn't like people to hear, he's pinning those faults on me," he replied.

Jimmy shifted his feet. "So what do we do now? I like studying; I just don't like to do it with teachers," he wondered.  
"When you _like studying_, that's where the problem starts," Vergil said. He did not like the process, but he guessed that if he was good at it, he shouldn't do it for free. His future depends on what he does.  
"We'll do some Sudoku. It was hard teaching Matt and John how to play it, but you should've seen Jim's demonstration with shapes and smileys," Zack told them.  
"Yeah, but Brian is the whiz at this. I don't know how one guy with such low Math marks can frequently pwn it," the tall student stated.

The look of conclusion on Dante's face made John feel uneasy. "This is why I'd rather exercise my legs on pavement than my fingers and head on pencil and paper. Why don't we go for a walk? We can do recon at the Sanctuary, whatever anyone called that place," he suggested.  
"That's not a good idea; we've got a class with the rest at eleven," Vergil pointed out.  
"Classes are irrelevant now. They've given us our examination passes and the details we need to fill our forms with. There's nothing important they're forcing us to do now except revision and motivation."  
"I know we don't need more of those last two, but it doesn't mean Dante and Vergil don't," Jimmy told Zack.

Dante agreed with Zack's statement, though. "Let's tell Nay, Matt and Brian about this. They'll know before going to the next class, which we won't attend."

* * *

Brian did not want coffee that morning. It will make his hands shake like hell.

Something else vibrated like hell, though. He received a text message from Zack, it seems. Matt got one as well, it seems; probably in case they were in different places at the time. They were told to not go to class in the next period and instead head to the 'bridge' on the fourth floor; they discovered that the shed next to the train station is now under closer watch by campus authorities.

Matt was the first to stand up. He finished his second breakfast before his friend did; the latter always preferred taking meal-times easy.  
Brian took one last draught of mineral water. The clear freshness felt reassuring to his currently human tongue.

When they both head to the staircase near the cafeteria, they can see the other three guys and the twins standing in the public area of yellow tables and chairs. They seem undecided on whether to take the southern staircase near the admissions office or where the two are standing near right now. After some hand gestures, Dante and Zack headed north. They met up with the waiting two and made small talk while partially huffing for breath on their gravity-battling march.

"Verge took the south stairs to meet Nay," Zack mentioned, taking rear position but making a more consistent progress than Brian, who ascends behind leading Matt.  
"What about the other guys? Are they following Vergil for the heck of it?" Matt questioned.  
"It looks like it."

Moving as the third in line, Dante is right behind Brian. He looked eager to get to the top – or it could be because he was huffing so loudly. Maybe if Matt and Zack weren't there, he would have wanted to take a break and catch his breath on the second floor.  
'What is it about this guy that got Nay looking all ditzy over him?' Dante wondered, frowning. 'It's not like I've ever seen her ditzy, but I don't see where they're going.' This is not how his brother and neighbor protected him from Nevan, for whatever reason there is, but he knows his rights to giving people advice. Nay can totally lie with a straight face, as far as he knew, and if Brian is planning anything funny, he will have a brotherly neighbor to answer to.

* * *

I didn't mean to delay this chapter for so long, but I can't seem to log in when I want to upload this chapter, said there's some technical glitch a few days ago. While there's not much inspiration in college in the first month back, I met the dude I mentioned in chapter 5. Yep, the guy that kind of looks like Dante and would have if he weren't Asian. He's a metalhead, and I'm afraid I'm having a crush on him.  
I pray to the Light that this shall pass.


	25. Talk Turns Into Action

**Do My Calculations**

It feels odd to have to explain my absence this way, but it's true: I've been hanging out with the metalhead that looks like Dante at the expense of writing time. There's always other daily business in the way, but all I know is that I have to finish this and not leave it hanging.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so.

Entry Twenty-Five: Talk Turns Into Action

She watched how he began to spend more time talking to those humanoid bats again. He _said_ he had examinations to deal with, which meant he was supposed to be serious about it.  
From the looks of today, he lied.  
She knew he was supposed to attend a class at this hour, but there he is, disappearing with three of those faux humans. It wasn't as if her attendance in class was compulsory – she took care of that some time ago – but this action of his sparked distrust in her.

She moved out of the shady part of the cafeteria and into the public washroom. She need not really lock the cubicle when she transforms into numerous little bats. In this form now, the bats moved with caution and coordination. She is able to track him; she can predict his next location. It was just fitting.

* * *

Fresh out of a different Math class, Nay could not shake off the feeling of being watched. She herself watched for spooky redheads, but college students are normally a vibrant bunch, and they alter their appearances drastically to get rid of previous looks attained in school.

She received a text message from Vergil. She was told to meet him, Dante and 'the guys'

The southern fourth floor region of the campus building has classes and the not-so-popular rooftop theater. There was a bulletin board for the School of Media and Performance program, so she read the articles to pass the time, unless the others were already waiting for her to arrive. At the moment, they are the ones who haven't turned up yet.

When she heard Jimmy's laugh from the stairs, she hid behind a wall separating from the bulletin area from the path that leads to the open-air 'bridge'. As she expected, he was there. He came with John and Vergil, but Dante and the remainder are missing. Despite her surprise at that, she managed to startle all three of them.  
"Blam!"  
At least none of them were writing anything while making their way to the fourth floor. She was also glad that none of them are _so_ mature as to be angry with her about this – with Vergil's obvious exception. Then again, he was confronted with this little annoyance before.

"Oh, you scared me there," Jimmy said; when Brian did it to him for the first time, his hat took more damage than it did when Vergil accidentally projected his ghost swords.  
"God damn!" John cursed in an undertone; he clenched his fist on his chest as if to check his own pulse.  
"Must you really do that? I mean, it gets old pretty soon," Vergil told her.  
"Then you're one guy who gets pretty easily bored," Nay retorted.

"The others aren't here yet? We've beaten them, man," the tallest among them commented.  
The second-shortest pointed out the other four after they walk down the corridor and pass some washrooms that smell strongly of scented disinfectants.

"So what's the fire about us skipping class today?" Matt asked them. He has to get used to the three guests; they were involved in their current case.  
"Does class not hamper down our progress in capturing the creature once more?" Jimmy responded with a question.

Brian stifled a chuckle. "Alright, I know you're enthusiastic about getting back at her –"  
"This isn't _just_ about revenge, Brian!" Jimmy snapped. This sudden raging voice coupled with his unusual height can become an intimidating sight.

Vergil's gaze moved between the two of them. 'If this doesn't make it clear to Dante what Nevan does, I don't know what will,' he thought. 'Although, Dante and Jimmy don't acquaint with each other as closely as the other guys…'

"Whoa there, big fella – what else did she do?" Dante still asked. There must be some reason for this usually easy-going guy to lose his cool.  
"You heard what we said she did. You'd think she's been doing little harm killing off _some_ workers around college. Well, they aren't the only victims; she's also lured off men on the streets at night, sucking out their life-forces. Men who have families – men who bothered to go down to the convenience store to get milk for the kids and tampons for their wives!"  
While the three other boys looked indifferent about this, Brian seemed uneasy about the deliberate disclosure of information that Jimmy makes.  
"But you guys are demons yourselves. How are we sure that this isn't some sort of war between your side and Nevan's?"

"If it _had_ been war, we would've stayed in the demon world. Other than that, what war would it be if it's five guys against one woman? Although, we should take a breather before addressing her as one," Zack clarified.  
"You're calling her a monster," Dante stated.  
Jimmy groaned in exasperation. "You just don't get it, do you? Or has she decided that since you've got special blood, you deserve special treatment from her? Maybe she hasn't sampled the power she would've drained from you yet?"

His stomping around the rooftop bridge made some passers-by stare.  
He and his accomplices don't really belong there, or even have the permit to gather there.  
At least the anonymous students left the area before things got worse with this group.

"Drained from me?" Dante repeated.  
"That's what she normally does to thrive here. She'll just take other people's life-force, make them her own and remain invincible against whatever's going to stop her," Matt explained.

Brian unconsciously adjusted his hat. "We haven't had accounts of other demons getting their lives drained the same way, so the assumption can be made that she can only drain human blood. In Jimmy's case, his life-force was drained when he's in human form. Dante and Vergil are part-demon, part-human, so if their blood can be more conveniently drained, Nevan will get hold of demon blood even more easily…"  
"So the real danger is when she does exactly that," Nay stated.

Vergil turned to his brother. "Dante – as much as I don't need to hear about your romantic exploits – has she done anything to you in any manner that left you more than light-headed with endorphins?"

He was about to answer before he saw a flock of bats flying up the side of the building block they were at.  
Bats. In broad daylight.  
"Duck!" John instinctively shouted as the group of winged mammals swoop down at them.  
"What are you, inexperienced? Get into the buildings!" Brian retorted, taking him and the other small person there by their arms. He looked around in case there were other students caught up in the midst, but the short glance was enough to tell him that his guys, the twins and Nay were the only ones at the rooftop now.

Matt ushered the twins after Brian. Jimmy and Zack were holding the bats off while still in human form. The tattooed man hurried his transformation and dashed forth to aid them. Thinking quickly, he took to the air and attempted to create the strongest gust of wind he could at the time to disorientate the smaller bats.  
"Why didn't we have our weps with us?" Jimmy grumbled as he and Zack also morph.

"I'm not going to be left out of this," John muttered, joining in as well.  
"Johnny – holy crap." Now the proclaimed leader felt more ornamental than ever. He turned to the three. "Stay here, kiddoes," he told them before transforming as well.

The five winged skeletons – still wearing their clothes but have unburdened themselves of their backpacks – flew around the rooftop. The three could not see what was happening exactly through the glass doors of the north building. Vergil decided to take the risk and swing it open despite Brian's instruction. Dante followed suit and opened the other door.

They could see one tall skeleton flying from the one with the hat to the second-smallest one there. If Vergil was right, Jimmy was relaying Brian's message to Zack and asking him to tell the rest something. It must be a plan. The watchers can only see the backs of only two skeletons now, but the flock appears smaller now. The tall skeleton faltered a little, but he regained his balance. They can hear a shout – probably a command – Jimmy and Brian flapped hard and propelled themselves backward. The bats have scattered.

"John!" Apparently the plan involved him flying through the swarm and he has underestimated his speed when running through them. Too late the twins realized it was Nay that shouted John's name. She had been watching from the outer part of the glass doors after Vergil opened one, and now she ran toward John, who was dizzy from the impact. She stopped her sprint before she hit the six-foot wall bordering the open-air rooftop. Any attempts of catching him would fail; he was still a distance over the wall.

Spotting easy prey, a small number of the scattered bats regained orientation and flew towards the human.

"Nay!"  
Brian dived to shield her while Zack flew over the wall to check on John. Things were happening so fast, they'll need a replay of this.  
"Stay inside," Matt called to Dante and Vergil as he and Jimmy drive away other bats that remain.

John felt enough wind whip past his skull to know he was falling fast. He unfurled his wings and caught an updraft. Zack was up somewhere a second ago and now he's gone. He flew over the wall and landed next to the guy, now slowly approaching Brian. The situation is now safe enough for Dante and Vergil to take a closer look.

All except Brian reverted to their human forms. The remaining winged skeleton can still move; if it was human, it would have been breathing instead. He spread out his wings and released Nay, but she still held him, because if she let go, he will fall.  
"We'll take it from here," Zack said softly to her, carefully taking hold of the skeleton by his shoulders.

He moaned and brushed his companion off. Slowly he returned to human form as the rest of them did. Now with flesh, the scars are fresh on his arms and back. He set himself gently onto the floor.  
"Is there anything we can do?" Dante spoke up. Nobody was saying anything; the seriousness bothered him.  
Matt went off to pick up the backpacks they set aside right before the tussle. "You can go back to classes; there's no need to worry about us," he told Dante.  
"No way, man. I can't just stand back and see you guys getting killed off by those bats!"

Jimmy raised a grim eyebrow. "You _do_ know Nevan's keeping them, right?"  
Dante looked at his battered friend. He could be Nay's new boyfriend or whatever, but Brian was his friend first. "If she's been causing all this, then I guess she deserves to be kicked out of town," he responded. "Besides, how can we keep out when we're now very much involved in this?"  
"_We_, Dante?" Vergil questioned, but he sighed. "I suppose Nay and I have both witnessed enough things around to count ourselves as involved."

"Can you walk?" Nay asked Brian in a low voice.  
He shrugged. "I could try," he wheezed. He held out one forearm for her and another for one of the others. Zack took it. "Take me to the Sick Bay. I'll be fine."

'So what do we do?' Vergil poked his twin mentally.  
'Right now? I have no idea.'  
'Then I'd better get us one.' He watched as Jimmy took Nay's place and left with Zack for the lift. 'We'll go to class after lunch and not mention this – just like we always did.'  
Nay walked back to them sullenly.  
"It wasn't your fault. It was ours for not letting you know our capabilities – or not emphasizing your need to stay out." Matt turned and left with John before saying that latter part.

'I might have to talk to Nevan sooner than I told her I will.'

* * *

I got that tampon thing from 'The Nanny'. It's in the episode about Bobbi Fleckman, if I got the name right, when her personal assistant talks about how demanding her job is.


	26. Meetings

**Do My Calculations**

The inconsistent work continues!  
I never thought before I wrote the two previous chapters that I'd need details on the Sick Bay, but I visited it myself one day. It was a bad experience, but it's good for minor story details.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so. Brian borrowed a phrase from Moiraine in Book 1 of the Wheel of Time series. Monopoly belongs to the Parker Brothers / Hasbro, and the Game of Life belongs to Milton Bradley, if those dusty boxes on my shelves are right.

Entry Twenty-Six: Meetings

Brian was patched up in the college's emergency room. It didn't have medicines like pharmacies do, but it was set up as a first aid area. The staff in charge helped clean the wounds, but the patient's two accompanying friends were the ones who knew which bandages go where.  
When asked what caused this, Jimmy supplied the story as usual: The three of them were taking a very stray walk at the east border of the college and Brian fell due to the uneven, sometimes steep landscape. To add to that, there were errant squirrels on the branches of the tree Brian fell against.

It was a wild story, but nothing was impossible.

Matt will drive him home. The other three will stay in college and keep track of revision developments.

"Brian says it's not your fault. It's typical to try to exceed your own capabilities at demanding times – _he_ did that, too, if you noticed," Zack said to Nay at lunchtime.  
On the other hand, Vergil wondered if he had more to do with this than he first acknowledged. Maybe if he had kept his attention on his neighbor, she wouldn't have just ran like…

Dante returned to their table. "I couldn't find Nevan anywhere."  
Vergil checked Nay's watch. "Maybe she's having lunch outside college, or studying."  
"From our experience, if there's been an attack, she'd be off recovering. She uses her gained power for attacking more than anything else," Jimmy explained.  
"Not draining?" Vergil asked.  
"Oh, that doesn't require power. She does that when she gets really weak – which means I'm so pissed off right now because she could be doing that right this moment."

He still searched his own mind for a way to cheer Nay up. "Sudoku?" he suggested, hoping he wasn't being hurtful.  
"Do you think he can make it to the Multi-Purpose Hall this Friday?" she asked quietly.  
"He's survived worse. Being a selective-guardian demon isn't a walk in the park – much less if you're the front leader," John pointed out.

Vergil watched as his twin set his can of chilled coffee aside and took out a textbook from his own bag for once.  
He peeked into one page, but decided not to open the book fully. "Man, I've really lost my mood for this."  
"Dante, you've come to classes for the past four or five months. Who says you're going to depend on six hours of midnight-oil studying in order to pass each subject?" the elder twin questioned.  
It brought more than one thoughtful grin at the table.

* * *

'What happened to the good old days when cartoon is just good music, good plots and kickass action?' Brian wondered. 'Even if it was Looney Tunes, at least the characters are pretty good.'  
Matt has to make another trip to college and back to take the other guys home; they stayed back around college a little longer. They were lucky to have known what nonsense existed on modern TV before he had.  
He flipped to a channel that specializes on sitcoms and reality shows, though he only watched the former.  
'Now here's some good old comedy from the '90s!'

The house has four rooms that can hold beds in them. The master room – on the front, northern side – is shared by Jimmy and Matt. Zack's room is on the west and his is on the east while John's room is on the ground floor. The TV is located on the upper floor living room, which house-plans indicated to be a 'family hall'.

Only when the show was over and he switched the television off did he hear a tapping sound coming from the master room. He dragged himself carefully out of the couch and walked there, listening for the sound again. He peeked into the room and saw something at the window; it looked like something one holds in his hand to mark someone's rank or something… 'What was it called again…?'

The object disappeared when Matt's red convertible arrived. The boys appeared as bored by college as usual, though he can sense Jimmy's wariness; the man kept turning his head on the spot, watching out for things.  
Realizing that he could expect a nag if they found him out of bed or any soft furniture at the moment, he dashed into his room and sat on his bed, throwing the covers over his knees.

He could barely hide his anxiety when three out of four of them appeared at the door of his room in unison.  
"Is she okay?" He could not find much else to ask them.  
"She's worried that you can't turn up for the English exam," Zack told him.  
Brian leaned against his pillow on the bed's headboard, a smile forming on his lips. 'She's such a nerd,' he thought.

"I think I can make it to college by Thursday if she, Dante and Vergil want to discuss stuff at the second-last minute," he stated.  
John is finally visible next to the doorframe. "Uh, you know there's no classes anymore by Thursday, right?"  
Brian knuckled his forehead for a moment as if to check for memory, then tossed his shoulder-length hair out of his eyes. "Maybe I'll try to go on Wednesday."  
"Are you nuts? Maybe _you_ don't feel the hurt, but _I_ do, at least for you, and you're not leaving this house until Friday when we have a paper to sit through," Jimmy told him.

He sighed. "Come on, man. Flesh wounds heal more easily than emotional scars. I suffered more injury to my pride than anything else. It'll pass, though."  
"Brian," Matt uttered. He did not say much else, but his face asks the question. 'Is it worth seeing someone if it means risking even worse accidents that you might not recover from?'  
The seemingly bedridden man hung his head low. "I'll stay," he finally decided. "But can you get the guys to come and revise with us tomorrow? We know Vergil does his homework," he added.  
"Hey, I do my homework, too." Everyone's eyes fell on Zack. "I just don't like people knowing that I do."  
"I say they can come. What about you, Jimmy?" John asked.

The tall man looked like he was imitating a set of scales. "Let's see. Too many cooks spoil the broth –" his left hand lowered slightly "– but the more monkeys in a barrel, the merrier!" His right hand won with his left hanging high in the air.  
"You do know they'll be here to study with us rather than play Twister, don't you?" Matt questioned, grinning.  
"How are people supposed to survive studying if they didn't draw funny doodles of you or something?" Jimmy fired back.

Brian breathed more easily when all left the room except for Zack. Dante, Vergil and Nay will come tomorrow, probably every day before the first paper, and every weekday since then.  
Before Zack could talk, he suddenly remembered what he saw before the boys entered the house.  
"Did you or the others see anything weird when you're just arriving here?"  
There was a moment before Zack responds: "I think there was a purple guy wielding a scepter going over the roof and out of sight, but I figured it was just my imagination."  
'Scepter! That's the word!'

He tried to focus on the present concern. "I think he was real. He tapped on the front window with it and disappeared when you guys came."  
Zack did not remove his eyes from Brian's. "You weren't really in bed when we came," he said.  
'Spare me.'

* * *

Tuesday

'Of all the whiles that I've been tired of seeing college, it's weird if I think I'm going to miss those grounds,' Vergil mused.  
Dante seemed normal. It was times like these when he would say he was too bored to study and he would rather be home with his guitar or something. Well, he would have stayed in college if his other classmates weren't busy burying themselves in pages of information.

Nay still shared their transportation for going to college and back. Only, she talks less and seems to have started acting like Jimmy after his confinement.

Meanwhile, Nevan has been completely out of their sight for the whole day. The three couldn't help feeling vulnerable when the guardian guys aren't around, but she just didn't show up.  
Classrooms traditionally aren't places where people would feel comfortable, but the feeling of security returned to them when they were within sight of at least three of the guardians.

"Where's John?" Dante asked Matt, for he, Jimmy and Zack were the ones who came.  
"He volunteered to stay home and watch over Brian, just in case," he answered, keeping an eye on his surroundings.  
"Speaking of which, is it alright for you kids to come over to study at our place?" Zack asked the twin.  
Jimmy had the look urging 'Say yes, say yes!' on his face.  
Zack almost wanted to add 'We didn't really need you, but Brian gets bored of us,' but he was afraid he would say something about Nay.

"Why not? Verge will help you with the work, and we get to talk with Brian," Dante responded.  
While Jimmy punched the air in triumph, Matt turned to Zack with a look to say: 'It's not that hard.'

Nearing exam season, classes are only held for the purpose to revise and ask questions, perhaps even hints, in preparation for the coming papers. The line between the guardians and the twins has faded by now, and Vergil sat with Zack near the front while the rest exchanged plans at their seats near the right wall.

"Listen, Dante," Jimmy took on a serious tone, "with Brian vulnerable and John taking care of him, we – and I mean Matt, Zack and I – have confirmed not having either of them with us when we strike Nevan down."  
"So it's also confirmed that Vergil and I are going with you now that you're two pairs of hands short?" Dante tried not to sound excited, but he couldn't help it; one of the biggest misadventures had stumbled into him in this institute and he was about to end it. If this is done with, then he would have to fall back on something else.  
"Yes, it is," the tall student replied, sounding rather exasperated.  
"It'll have to be an all-men operation, won't it?" Nay asked, bitterness clear in her voice.

Dante understood that she thought they weren't letting her go this time in case her distraction will be as detrimental to their plans as the last time.  
"Let me just say it's not sexism taking place here; it's racism. You're pure human. At least the twins are each half-demon. They're each half-human, too, but…" Jimmy shrugged. "Look, I'm sure you wouldn't argue about this. It's pretty rational, demons fighting demons, the powers we use in battle. It's not much of a war, come to think of it."  
Nay rolled her eyes, but to Dante's surprise, she said: "You're right. I'm not _that_ holy anyway."

He waited for her to return to her work before he goes to ask Jimmy: "How did you do that?"  
"What?"  
"Winning an argument before it begins."  
"It depends on the circumstances. Once you get it in the right view," Jimmy made a swooshing motion with his hand along with noise from his mouth, "it's Sudoku logic all the way."  
Matt did not look up from his work, but he still grinned.  
"You know what we're thinking about, right?" Jimmy asked him.  
"Castlevania."

* * *

With Matt driving as usual and Jimmy in the passenger seat, it is as crammed as it was when two of the three guests first took their detour to the house-of-five. When the convertible pulled into the driveway, John rushed to the front door with a baseball bat in hand.  
"Oh, you're home – good," the seemingly hale occupant of the house breathed hard.

"Good? Is there something about Brian that makes him hard to live with?" Zack wondered, looking pointedly at Nay. She did not seem to notice.  
"He kept asking me to play board games with him – Monopoly, Game of Life, chess, whatever else we have – because he was bored. Bored! After having to change his bandages and applying salves – no, I can't deal with this. I can't stay underneath this roof and expect to stay sane while I take care of –"  
Zack smiled, shook his head and took the baseball bat from him. He ushered the rest inside while Matt locks his car, being the last man outside to make sure nobody is about to ambush them.

"If this is the case, do you mind reconsidering your plan? John is starting to look more vulnerable than Brian," Dante asked Jimmy quietly.  
"What you see before you are team technicalities. We know each other better than you know one of us," the tall man spoke.  
Vergil stared warily after Zack and John, who had gone to the kitchen to grab potato chips and soda. Matt had taken Nay upstairs to spare Brian the bother of almost falling down the stairs.

Those on the ground floor gathered at the coffee table, but when the remaining three arrived downstairs, Matt is grinning wider than he was in class today. He supported Brian – now fully dressed – while Nay trailed behind them, looking as embarrassed as the patient does.  
Jimmy chose this moment to say: "Did we miss anything we were meant to see?"  
"No," Brian's voice was louder than Dante and Vergil thought he was capable of making.  
"Seriously, what happened?" Vergil asked when Nay came to sit beside him. Brian sat – or was placed – between Dante and Zack.  
"Oh, just get on to business, why don't you?" Nay replied sharply.

The ringleader, Jimmy, suppressed laughter and tried to look businesslike. "Alright, guys. So far, we don't know where Nevan's headquarters are yet, but that can change anytime. That's why we're leaving that for later while, as of now, we plan on her destruction."  
"Crew issues come first," Zack said to him clearly.  
"Right…" Jimmy seems reluctant to break this to John, but after all, he is leader. "Johnny, we respect you for your ability to think quickly and listen out for things, but…"  
"What are you trying to say?"

Dante pressed a finger to the space between his upper lip and his nose as if to prevent a sneeze; he was trying not to laugh at the unfolding scene. Vergil, though masking his expression to John's look of bewilderment, is also avoiding the possibility of laughter. They weren't the only ones; Jimmy and Matt were faking a sad smile, though, while Brian and Zack looked annoyed that this was taking so long. Nay was watching all this happen.

"Dante and Vergil are coming with us on this mission in place of you and Brian," Jimmy said it at last; his smile now faded.  
"I knew it. I told you," Brian said to the short one.  
"What? Don't do this to me," John exclaimed.  
"Zack, can't _you_ stay instead? Please, it's really _boring_…" the recently-injured man complained.

"Sorry, kids, but I'm afraid the other guys need me to help track Nevan down," Zack told the staying two.  
"And they need _me_ to kick ass harder. Plus, if one of the twins stays here, Nevan's bound to come here, and by the time the other twin comes, it'll be too late," Matt said.  
"What if Nevan uses the three of us as hostage while she's baited you guys off elsewhere?" John demanded.  
"Don't fool us, John; you're stronger than you look." Jimmy laughed at his surprised face. "Yeah, and we need somebody to babysit the kids on their play-date while we were away."

Everyone who will go on a neck-breaking hunt roared with laughter at that moment – even Vergil, who wiped a tear from one eye.  
Brian put a palm to his face. "Come to think of it, maybe it _is_ better if Johnny came along with you," he remarked.  
"Oh, no, someone's got to make sure you two don't _do it_," Zack wheezed.  
Nay seems to have realized what they meant. "Wait; what makes you think I'm going to be here when you're off hunting?"  
"Girlie, you're related to Dan and Verge. Well, _sort of_ related," Jimmy mused, "so whether you go to college or stay at your home, Nevan can find you before we find her, and she'll hold you hostage."  
"You also _know_ Brian _wants_ to _see_ you," Matt intoned, making the man in bandages hide his reddened face again.  
"Fine," she sighed.

"And we will steer this discussion to what weapons we take with us when we hunt tomorrow…"  
Zack's voice trailed, his words not quite reaching someone's brain. One of those staying in this house paid attention, hoping his actual role in the plans would be bigger than the rest laughed about. One other person looked bored, but another person knew the former is concerned for friends below the calm exterior held…

* * *

It's funny what re-reading the Harry Potter series for a month can do to work that doesn't seem to continue.


	27. License To Smuggle

**Do My Calculations**

I'm sorry it's taken so long, readers.  
Disclaimers are disclaimers and furthermore shall remain so. Plus, I only did a rough calculation of what containers the swords would fit into.

Entry Twenty-Seven: License To Smuggle

Their plan, understood by all, is carried out on Wednesday morning.

Early before the sun rises, though, Dante murmured his apologies to the electric guitar he had to vacate from its tough case. While Vergil patiently waits for the process to be over with, he wondered whether two swords would fit in there, or if it will hold the weight of both. They made as little noise as possible going down the stairs to the storeroom. When they reached the place, they found that the trapdoor is open.  
"Now who has decided to live in the cupboard under the stairs?" Dante said in an attempted English accent.  
Vergil backhanded him over his shoulder with his hand not holding the case. "Be quiet," he responded, but in the low amplitude of his voice Dante can tell he was imitating someone else's English slang.

In the light of Vergil's ghost swords, they descended to the basement and saw a great demon curled up next to the only revealed facility at the moment: the games-drawer. One twin laughed as the other twin's eyebrows rose in intrigue at the Link Four set and pieces being left not far from a mug that seems to have been drained of coffee.  
'What the hell happened here?'  
Vergil sought the switch-controls near the trapdoor's stairs toward the vast basement and called out: "Dad!"

He managed to put down the guitar case in time and convince his father that it still contains something that isn't light but is a little delicate.  
The demon jerked to a sitting position immediately and looked around, shocked that he had been caught in this form again; it is not one he preferred his family members to see him in. He turned away from his sons to hide the fact that he has unbuttoned his nightclothes halfway down. He made sure every button has been fastened before he faced his sons again, now in human form.

"What's the time now, boys?" Sparda asked, seeing as the two are dressed for college already.  
Vergil glanced at his watch, but before he can fully announce the time, Dante questioned: "Dad, how can you do this to Mom?"  
"Well, what are you doing down here at four in the morning?" Sparda asked; he heard Vergil say it, but did not hear the minutes.  
Dante smirked. He knows his father tolerates this particular facial expression more than his mother does. "That's fine by me. You keep our secret, and we keep yours."  
"Oh, no way, Dante. As the parent, I have the right to know what my children are up to."

"Did your half-an-hour-once-a-week ritual _accidentally_ turn into you being distracted by Link Four so much that you wanted to stay awake long enough to be able to fall sleep here in your demon form rather than upstairs in human form?" Vergil deduced from the clues.  
Sparda tried to say something, but he looked from Vergil to Dante, to Vergil again, but then could not come up with what scheme the twins are up to, involving an electric guitar at four in the morning. "Fine, jam to your hearts' content!" he told them as he took the mug upstairs for washing. He seems to expect the kids to clear up the Link Four frame and pieces after him.  
They did the unfinished task until they can hear him walk up the stairs above the storeroom.

"Cranky, ain't he?"  
"You'd be, too, if you lacked two or three hours of good sleep."  
"Bro, we just missed those hours. Are you saying we're going to be _that_ cranky? I've always been the cool guy to have around in class –"  
"Then I might as well be cranky from having to hear you rave about this."

Dante frowned and pouted his lips when Vergil strode off to the camouflaged button on one part of the wall. It seems he remembers where it is located even if the other facilities were absent from view – the games-drawer has been retracted.  
The weapons cabinet swiveled into view

"There's Force Edge, Rebellion and Yamato. _Yamato's mine_," Vergil told his brother sharply.  
"Yeah, yeah… I'll take Rebellion. Force Edge looks too fancy," Dante stated, opening the case that formerly contained his beautiful guitar near the cabinet.  
Vergil carefully opened the horizontal glass doors of the weapons cabinet. Before he could wonder how he is supposed to carry the sword tirelessly, he saw that the naked blades were displayed in front of the barely-decorated scabbards. Aware of his unworthy, clumsy movement, he laid his right hand on the hilt of the mighty, ancient sword and his left on the edge that would not cut so strongly.

'Allow me to retrieve you from your slumber.'  
He could almost hear the slim, elegant sword's breathing being measured, as if it was sleeping. He moved his left fist to the hilt, carrying it out of the cabinet. It was certainly light; he held it to one side while his left hand took the scabbard out as well.  
He found some room away from the fragile furniture to test the balance of his rightful blade. It sung as he felt himself trying out sword-forms he has seen in pictures in books, moving in ways described by words in a language so poetic…

Dante pushed the empty case to one side with his foot and unceremoniously took Rebellion from the cabinet. It was a bit heavy in one hand alone, but the hilt felt comfortable to him. The scabbard wasn't much, allowing him to carry the sword on his back, but it will do for quick-draws.  
"Rebellion, huh? Maybe it would've rebelled if I tried to do the same thing you did," he spoke to Vergil, who paused halfway through a sword-form but altered his position before he fell.  
"I do not intend to kill you right here, right now, brother, as we have a more necessary hunting to carry out."  
The brother in red shrugged, swinging Rebellion a little here and there before kneeling down before the guitar case next to his brother.

It appears that Yamato was too long to fit into the case. Rebellion might, if Dante did not mind the tip of the sword scraping against the soft-material-lined corners.  
But he minded.  
And there are other things coming to his mind at this unanticipated failure.  
"We should've known our swords are too long to fit into a little guitar case. What were we thinking –?"

Vergil forced himself to think fast in a short space of time. Say they found a double-bass casket in the basement for some reason… no, maybe it is advisable to get a case with room for _both_ swords. If there is such a thing as a _keyboard_ case… he might have seen one before…

He looked for the switch that would activate the dressing table so he can place Yamato on a good surface. Once he has done that, he dashed upstairs – all the way from the underground to the attic – to look for the case that could fit blades, hilts and scabbards… and come to think of it, guns. Dante would want Ivory and Ebony, just in case, and so would he.  
On his way back to the basement, hauling the keyboard case as quietly as he could, he wondered if Matt, Zack and Jimmy would have their own firearms. Back in college, they must not be seen carrying weapons, of course, but they brought up no talk of projectiles yesterday. The demon-hunting group of demons won't do very good if the three only had their skeleton bat forms to rely on in order to apprehend the succubus on the loose.  
'Let's hope they could surprise us with something.'

In the meantime, Dante had put the case back in their room, and his guitar in its home once more. Vergil almost scolded him for leaving the swords when the door to the basement is open, but then again, it could've been worse; one person or more could have heard the clink of hilts not far away. One of them would have to carry the keyboard case horizontally, so what matters when placing the sheathed swords in there is to save space for all arms, be it fire or steel.  
"Do you want to keep Ebony on hand?" Dante asked when he looked for leather holsters in the cabinet drawer.  
Vergil touched the hilt of Yamato again as if talking with it heart-to-heart. "No, I think it's better that you have both Ebony and Ivory."  
"Are you sure about that? You'd probably need bullets sometime," he insisted.  
"As much as I needed these, brother?" Vergil questioned, conjuring three ghost swords that fly in circles around their heads.

"Smooth," Dante remarked, taking the double-holster from the drawer. He placed the handguns where they should go. At least the case is big enough to contain both guns and swords.

"Would the case fit inside the Punto's trunk?"  
"We can always put it across the passenger seats and let our bags cover them," Vergil told him, locking the case's fastenings along the side opposite the hinges. The combined weight is only a little heavier than if he carried Dante's guitar in its coffin.  
The two of them cleaned up – retracted the weapons cabinet, switched off the light – and left the basement, closing both trapdoor and storeroom door. At the base of the staircase near the front door, the two of them seemed to be going in different directions; he in red going upstairs, he in blue heading for the car.

'Dude, what are you doing?'  
'Putting the case in the car. I can't bring this up there.'  
'Well, what about getting our bags to cover it with first?'  
'I'm not getting my backpack yet. I've got notes and stationeries to rearrange.'

Having communicated via telepathy, Dante found himself slapping his own forehead more for the dramatic effect than his own frustration.

'I'll stay with the weps. You go up and set your stationeries straight,' Dante suggested.  
'You mean you don't have anything different you need to bring today?'  
'It's not like we're going to study today!'

The twins stared at each other. Dante made the first move, going back down the stairs to take care of the case.  
'I guess I'll just take the heavy books out,' Vergil nodded, running upstairs soundlessly.

* * *

  
For the hour or so after that, the sons of Sparda had been playing Monopoly in the basement, waiting for the hour their parents would wake up and have breakfast with them. They discussed how they would tell their father that one of them will be driving today, that Nay is not coming to college today. Known to the twins but not their parents, Matt will pick her up, drop her off at the guys' place and drive Jimmy and Zack to college.

From what Vergil remembered, none of the five will be attending classes.  
A pair out of them will go around the campus to see if their target she-demon has other hiding places than the Sanctuary. The remaining would watch over the tree-surrounded clearing.

He and Zack will discreetly scour the place while the others pretend to be in college to discuss something relevant. If the pair found Nevan's hiding place, Vergil can alert Dante at once through telepathy, and he can tell the rest where to go.

The younger twin did not complain when his brother took the wheel. He was thinking of what to say to Nevan, wondering if she had any feelings for him. Perhaps she would use _his_ feelings against him and weaken the team.  
'I must not lose my resolve – unless I want more people to end up like Jimmy and Brian.'  
He thought about what Vergil told him right before they were attacked at the bridge between the campus buildings.  
'What about myself? Ain't I supposed to be taking it worse?'

Dante wasn't answered, even in mind. By the time they parked at a good spot, they put up the air of pretence that the keyboard case contained what normal people thought it did.

* * *

"Alright, Brian, Johnny – I want you kids to be nice to Nay while we're gone. Jimmy loves you!" the tall student spoke in an unfitting maternal voice right before he entered the car.  
Chuckling a little, Nay set her flute case and backpack full of non-college-related books on the coffee table. She told herself not to expect much fun from a day to be spent with two boys who were not her neighbors.

The two staying in the house would have been peeved by the tone and role taken by their supposedly secret leader, but they know the gravity of the situation 'while they're gone'.

"Hi," John greeted Nay.  
"Hello."  
Even greeting each other felt awkward because Nay barely identified with any of the five guys save Brian, and John seemed to have been tasked to keep an eye on the upcoming couple.

"Fantabulous. Can we move on with a game of Uno now?" Brian was watching them from the living room sofa.  
"I'll go get the cards," John told them, going upstairs.  
Nay turned to Brian. "I thought the other guys mentioned the possibility of Nevan coming here instead of ambushing them at college."  
"Speed-dial," he merely said; as uncomfortable as it is for him, he had his mobile phone in the front pocket of his jeans.  
"I hope Matt is as capable a driver as Mr. Sparda when the moment calls for it," she remarked.  
"How well does Jimmy's rescuer drive, by the way?"

She could not find a way of saying it without it sounding so absurd. "He can drive madly fast and not get into an accident while arriving at places in record time."  
His smile almost said he was expecting it.  
John returned with the cards and shuffled them. "Alright, I think we all know the rules of this here game: don't get too carried away and pretend all we're having is fun."  
Neither of them were sure whether he was just joking or totally serious. At least they are familiar with the card game itself.

* * *

Again, I'm sorry; this chapter might've felt like a filler. It was fun having them mess with Sparda for a bit. The next chapter will have more suspense and action.


	28. Challenge The Typical

**Do My Calculations**

Here I am, back with the next chapter. The unexplained gap was unforeseen.  
Disclaimer: I still do not own DMC, and I haven't played DMC3 in a while. Matt, Zack, Brian, John and Jimmy are not really mine.  
Title was inspired by some part of my syllabus, as usual.  
I have not watched Hellboy, and I don't think even my younger brother does. He just finds Kroenen bad-ass.

* * *

Entry Twenty-Eight: Challenge The Typical

Something told Dante that Matt's car had become comfortably spacious that day. Its effects seemed quite obvious in the near-carefree way they hauled their things. Matt's hands are free, but Jimmy carried a backpack, and Zack a rather large briefcase. Meeting at the foyer, the three looked at the keyboard case in Vergil's hands.

"Sparda doesn't disappoint," Jimmy commented with a whistle.  
"Why don't we have a look at all our weapons at the Sanctuary?" Zack suggested.

* * *

Vergil set the case down, and when Dante informed him through telepathy that the coast is clear, he unbuckled its two latches.  
"Bad-ass," Matt remarked, kneeling beside the case to pick up Rebellion. By the time he closed his fingers around the hilt, he released and withdrew his hand.  
"Matt?"  
Vergil tried to look; the human skin showed a minor burn.  
"Father must've laid a protective charm on these swords so that no other demon can wield them."

Jimmy poked Ivory to test, but did not get the same result. "The guns aren't cursed," he stated.  
Zack picked up Ebony with care, avoiding contact with either sword. "Apparently it's okay for anyone to actually hold these guns and shoot from them."  
"I thought that if the guns are, people will want to track down the person who cursed the guns," Jimmy theorized.  
"I thought it's because the guns aren't made in the demon world?" Matt asked.

"Look, maybe Father just didn't bother," Vergil told them sharply.  
"Y'know, Brian used a sword," Jimmy mentioned absently.

Dante abandoned his lookout duty when he saw the three unpacking their weapons. "Hey, cool."  
"Behold," Zack told them, hauling out a strange crossbow the size of his forearm from the briefcase.

Matt unceremoniously retrieved his knuckle-rings and sling cloth from the briefcase, also taking out Zack's craft-knife before his friend closes it.

Jimmy put down his backpack and laughed. "_My_ weapons are the coolest," he proclaimed, and proceeded to unzip his backpack. He took out what seemed to look like a pair of elephant tusks, except that they are flat and made of steel, with a protective handle each to make the weapon wieldable.

"Do they work like the bladed tonfa that character used in 'Hellboy'?" Dante asked.  
"Yeah…" Jimmy turned to his smirking friends. "But crossbows and knuckle-rings aren't imaginative weapons, are they?"  
"My crossbow is vertical," Zack countered.

"Okay, here are my sub-weapons."  
Jimmy pulled out a few hand-sized knives that were made specifically for throwing. He juggled two of them and caught them in mid-air.  
"I'm the knifemaster."

While his twin is busy checking out their weapons, Vergil tried to formulate a plan. Assuming Nevan is in college today, they have to either look for her and lure her to the battleground, or look for her and enter her lair, which might be laden with traps.

"In the first place, does she have a lair…?" Vergil wondered.  
"We're not counting outside places at the moment. The only settlement she could be at is her condo room, which is out-of-bounds for non-residents, especially a bunch of mean-looking guys like us," Matt told him.  
"Huh? I didn't think I look mean. Maybe _Verge_ is mean, but I'm not," Dante commented.  
His twin sighed.

"Dante, you have Nevan's number, don't you?" Zack asked.  
"Yeah, I do. Do I dial the number of the beast and summon the demon here?" he joked.  
"Typical… break from that – make it look more convincing, less like a trap."

* * *

Matt and Zack had been trailing Dante cautiously and from a distance, similar to how their group members were tracked to the Sanctuary before. They brought along an exercise book with boxes to look like they were revising Math together.

Dante hid Ivory and Ebony in the large side-pockets of his cargo pants; Matt had his weapons in his pockets, and Zack only brought his knife, which blended with the other stationeries of his blue pencil-case. They sat at random tables, at one point buying pulled tea. They did their best to maintain a low profile while making sure that Dante finds Nevan and is not harmed by her yet, in case she suspected something.

Out of the corner of his eye, Matt finally saw the redhead. He quickly looked down at the formulae he might have to memorize. Some of them were plain nonsense because Jimmy came up with them as a method of calculating the speed at which a cat would fly if it had wings.

Zack turned the page and glanced at Dante and Nevan; they were sharing a brief hug. He moved the tea glass so that the sweetened milk would not settle at the bottom, then took a sip. The taste was standard. Another glance at the brighter-haired individuals told him they would not be staying for long.

"Subjects have begun walking," Zack informed Matt, packing his stationeries.  
The cap-wearing student helped him finish the milky drink, and they left with minimal hurried movements.

* * *

"How's studying been for you?" Dante asked when the din of the cafeteria only barely reaches them.  
"I never do enough study," she replied with a cheeky smile.  
"Well, I've been doing a lot of freaking out lately, and on that note, I'm sorry for what I said last time."  
"Oh. Okay."

He could take that as forgiveness, or just ignore it because she has to be banished anyway.  
She turned to face him. "But I know for sure that your brother Vergil is a bookworm. Can't he help you out?"  
"Oh, he wouldn't help me cheat in an exam. Not that I would do that, but it's one way I can ace."

* * *

Jimmy finished the changes to the spell inside the stone mausoleum that was never moved from the place.  
"Now instead of functioning as a fridge, this bulk here leads us to an underground arena where we can carry out all acts of bloodshed," he told Vergil cheerfully.  
"You can build a whole underground base with your own magic?" Vergil asked, keeping the door halfway open. There was a short flight of stairs that led to the mentioned circular arena, which was lit by wall-torches.

Jimmy smiled proudly and said: "Heck no. I just cast a spell to connect this world to a more demonic part of this world. It exists, somewhere."  
Vergil closed the door of the stone structure. "Can any of the others also use magic? I don't recall anyone other than you so far with these abilities."  
"Zack knows advanced theories but he doesn't practice much. And Johnny, too, no matter what he tells you." He took a close look at Vergil's ear.

"What?"  
He playfully stood back up straight. "You can summon ghost-swords and we've never seen Dante use any magic."  
Vergil shrugged. "We don't know yet if he will have any."  
Jimmy looked serious as he surveyed the surroundings of the Sanctuary. "It makes me wonder: how is he going to survive in a demon apocalypse?"

* * *

Nevan looked only the slightest bit suspicious when Dante walked with her – or led her – to walk outside the cafeteria and near the abandoned monorail station.  
"It's a pretty peaceful place, if not for the cars and trucks always passing by," Dante remarked.  
"I like this place. There're trees out, and you can sit on these benches admiring the School of Arts and Design gallery."  
"We kissed here."

Dante smiled, pretending to remember the moment fondly.  
"Yes, we did." She tiptoed and tried to reach his lips with hers, but he backed away.  
"There's another place that I like around here. It's surrounded by so many trees that, even if Nay is in college at the second-floor east balcony, she won't see past the thick foliage – and birds."

He took her hand, and she willingly followed him up the road to the clearing.  
"Do she and your brother ever explore the place?"  
"I had the feeling they did, but I sure haven't. Let's go check it out." He walked down one flight to the first landing and looked back when he saw that she was not following.

She still stayed at the top of the stairs. "I don't think this is a good idea, with exams coming up and all."  
"We'll just check from inside the fence. I'll help you over."  
Her expression softened. "How sweet." She held Dante's hand as they both watch their steps at the stairs that had no railings and dead leaves scattered all over.

* * *

Zack peered from the edge of the wall next to the road while Matt kept a lookout on the other side. "They've gone down the stairs."  
"Give them five minutes, and we move," Matt told him.  
"Unless there's a signal?"  
"Yeap."

Vergil hid in the thick of trees, hoping he was sufficiently far so as not to be detected easily. Dante was showing Nevan the shed, the tall chairs and what looked like sculpture supplies for the Art and Design students.

"And check out this thing. I wonder what it's there for."  
"Um…" Nevan really looks nervous now. "It's bigger than your average fridge."  
"Oh hey, a handle, let's pull it.  
She stayed back when he opened it, which revealed a dark stairway, which predictably led downward.

"I'm going back to my apartment room."  
When she turned around, a winged skeleton stood in her way.

"_Oh, no, you're not_," it growled in a deep voice, and grabbed Dante and Nevan while it dashed forward into the stone mausoleum.

The two can hear her screaming. They hurried to where they hid their weapons. Zack loaded his crossbow. Matt held the door open for Vergil to come in with the swords and Ebony.

Jimmy is already armed, and thankfully for Dante, the blades only damage objects on the outside of his now-bony forearms.

The guardian demons morphed into their true forms and closed the door behind them.

* * *

I'm really unsure how to divide my lines and paragraphs now. As of this update, I have sixteen days to study for two tests, which are five days apart. Any update after the exams might depend on the reviews.

I don't really enjoy being an undergraduate. Things were simpler in Foundation Year.


End file.
